I didn't watch this past Tuesday's NXT yet, but I know the results, and believe you me, if Daniel Bryan didn't win, I'm glad it was Wade Barrett. Barrett, after starting out a bit stiff in all aspects to me, rebounded nicely and has become the most WWE-ready wrestler in the bunch. Most people would probably agree with me, especially those among the WWE Pros who voted Barrett the winner. However, if you listened to those same Pros talk about David Otunga during their backstage interview segments, you'd think he was the second coming of The Rock with his "ZOMG ZOMG IT FACTOR ZOMG ZOMG". Yeah, about that... I have no idea what they were seeing.
I've ragged on Otunga a lot since NXT began, and really, it was only a tip of the iceberg, given that I really didn't feel like wasting a lot of hot air on him week in and week out. I also have to wonder if some of the people who were singing Otunga's praises were giving their honest opinions or whether they were under order from Vince McMahon to praise him. Yeah, yeah, I know, you'd say it was probably all scripted, and you're probably right, but what lends me to believe that some of those comments were shoots lies in how guys like CM Punk and William Regal, heels to the core, praised Daniel Bryan, a guy being built up as a face. Why is that important? Punk made his bones wrestling Bryan (when he was Bryan Danielson) in the indies, and Regal helped train him. Okay, maybe it's a red herring, something to keep the worked-shoot aspect of the show intact.
Still, there's something disconcerting when I have to hear professional wrestlers, be they relative neophytes who are apt to believe what they're being scripted to say like The Miz, or dyed-in-the-wool vets like Ron Killings or Chris Jericho, say that Otunga has what it takes not only to get over with the crowd that the WWE has already, but to EXPAND that crowd like Hulk Hogan did in 1984-85 and what the paradigm shift and stars like Rock, Steve Austin and Mick Foley did in 1997-98, even if it is scripted for him. I struggle to find what kind of "It Factor" this guy has. When I think "It Factor", I think Hogan, Rock, Austin, Ric Flair, Jerry Lawler (c'mon, the guy worked the most infamous angle in history with Andy Kaufmann)... hell, even John Cena and Jericho to an extent have that going for them.
Then again, what is "It Factor" and how do you measure it? Does Otunga have "it" simply because he's engaged to Jennifer Hudson? If "It Factor" is solely mainstream crossover potential, then I guess he does. Especially in today's culture, people are obsessed with celebrity, and when vapid shows like The Hills or Jersey Shore do huge numbers despite them being shows about absolutely NOTHING (unlike Seinfeld, which was about nothing, but was clever and funny), then maybe people will peek over to whatever show Otunga is shunted to just because hey, maybe Jennifer Hudson will appear! However, will that translate to viewers staying tuned in when the dude is the epitomé of terrible?
It's not debateable that he was by and large the worst guy in the ring out of all the season 1 rookies. Hell, he's on the same level as a guy like the Great Khali if you're talking the entire company. However, it's his charisma that everyone was trying to sell him on. Funny, because I never saw it after his intro package week one. He was on camera talking about his background, and he seemed like a decent enough guy on the stick. Hell, he even came up with a catchphrase and got a nickname from jump. Pretty cool. Well, it would have been if he had actually followed it up with anything substantial.
The first thing we saw of Otunga after that intro package was him nearly killing Darren Young with the sloppiest looking spinebuster I had ever seen. In the following weeks, he kept cutting promos, and nothing ever came across as engaging, entertaining or worthy of being booed. He just came off as someone whose character was that he was big-timing everyone in the company. It might work if the guy behind the gimmick was, say, The Rock or even Chris Jericho or John Cena, but a rookie? He looked as if he was doing a guest spot on Entourage as an egomaniacal actor. That didn't translate to me, nor did it to the rest of the WWE audience until he did everything but sodomize and stab Cena the night he hosted RAW. Putting the screws to the top star is a great way to give someone a rub, but if the guy's being sold as this awesomely charismatic dynamo, then shouldn't he be drawing heat without needing to sell Cena up the river?
Having crossover appeal only gets you so far in the WWE if that's all you got. If you can't help to retain audience, then what the fuck are you good for? The only way I can see him getting a rocket up his ass as a good thing is if people stay tuned in and see guys like Cena, Jericho, Randy Orton, Edge, Christian, Undertaker, Rey Mysterio, CM Punk, hell, even one of the lower-card acts like Zack Ryder or Evan Bourne even, and the like and are attached that way.
Then again, just because he's going to potentially get new viewers for the WWE doesn't mean I want to see him shitting up my TV screen. In addition to being the epitomé of terrible, he's the epitomé of what's wrong with the mindset of Vince and Stephanie McMahon right now, that they value getting mainstream exposure at any cost with no regard to what their current audience or any potential growth audience within the area of combat sports/professional wrestling would want to see. He's not in the WWE because of what he can do, but because of who he knows. That might be fine if he weren't shoved down my throat as the next messiah of wrestling despite being a worse overall talent than Matt Morgan at this point, but he is, and as a long-time fan, I'm offended by it.
Still, there's some hope. He didn't win the competition, so maybe they're getting the point that the crowds they do have want to see guys like Wade Barrett more than they want Otunga. Maybe this will learn Vince and Co. that natural talent comes first and then crossover appeal comes later. Hell, maybe they'll realize that "It Factor" doesn't rub off on someone from marriage.
Or maybe I'm just preaching to the choir. Who knows. What I do know is is that David Otunga sucks a fat donkey penis, and the day he leaves professional wrestling will be a good one for me as a wrestling fan.
Photo Credit: WWE.com
MS Paint Work: All me, baby
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