WWE Squared Circle Squanders: Adam Rose vs. The Bunny

We took a look at the Adam Rose – Bunny feud that could have been more, according to former WWE star Justin Gabriel.

I think of myself as a fairly positive guy on the whole when it comes to watching wrestling. I get really into it, I lose myself in matches and angles when done right, and consistently love sports entertainment. There’s only one real caveat to that:

When done right

With that, here comes the first of what should be a regular series on Daily DDT dedicated to angles that just kind of fizzled out. Not ones that played out, but ones that were dropped or changed with no real reasoning behind it. First up, the “feud” between Adam Rose and the Bunny.

WWE has had many epic rivalries and angles that have lasted for many months, or even longer (looking at you, Authority). However, not angles need to be three match feuds with a big blow-off at the end. The overall strength of WWE programming could come from well done lower card angles. These feuds don’t need to be huge. I will contend though that feuds need an end.

After reading a recent interview with Justin Gabriel, who played the Bunny for most of his run, it turns out there were a couple ideas thrown out for who the giant rabbit would turn out to be. However, all we got was a quick Adam heel turn and no reveal.

As much hope as NXT viewers had for Adam Rose going to the main roster, we quickly saw that his gimmick wasn’t really connecting with the audience in the same way. His only real major roster feud ended up being with the Bunny, one of his own Rosebuds.

There was a slow burn to his heel turn, becoming increasingly frustrated with the Bunny and feeling as though he were upstaged. There was a lot of conversation around who the Bunny would end up being. WWE waited through almost two months of waiting for Rose to snap on the Bunny. After the Bunny was assaulted by Kane and was put in a neck brace, he would try to console Rose after losing a match to R-Truth, only to be assaulted.

This would be the last time we ever see Peter Rabbit. The question remained, who was the guy in the bunny costume? Some viewers noticed similarities between the Bunny and Justin Gabriel and determined it was him. Gabriel had lots of ideas for the Bunny to be cooler, like how he wanted “turn this bunny into an evil, sadistic character” Gabriel has said himself that he was not going to be revealed as the Bunny. He had lots of ideas for who could be the Bunny:

"I think they wanted it to end up being someone who was returning. Someone like Kurt Angle or Jeff Hardy, somebody cool like that. Anyone else on the roster, it wouldn’t have been cool. It wouldn’t have been a shock. I came up with an idea for the bunny to become really hardcore, he has dried blood all over him, sitting backstage grumpy smoking cigars. It’s like when people hit their all-time low. The bunny should be going through ladders, tables, and coming close to winning championships, but doesn’t because he’s too [explitive] up. Then maybe the bunny gets knocked out backstage, and a ref shows up and it’s Vince. That’s the only shock factor it could be, if it’s someone on the roster. Then Vince wakes up and just goes ‘I don’t know what happened. I put the suit on and I just blacked out.’"

How great would any of those ideas been? People were generally invested in the Bunny character if only just to see who it would be revealed to be. Even if it was Justin Gabriel, it could have given him a new lease on life on the main roster. Personally, I would’ve liked to see it be a returning superstar for a face turn and maybe even a mini-feud about how they want to keep the party going while Rose wants to stop it.

Instead of any of that, the WWE universe got no payoff, Rose is now left as a D-level heel with Rosa Mendes as a manager and just turned on the Rosebuds, and Gabriel is back on the independent scene as PJ Black. This didn’t have to be a main event feud. It could have even happened on Main Event for some of it. Instead, WWE squandered an opportunity to finish a lower card feud on a good note, as they often do.

What other squandered opportunities would you like to see looked at in this series? Who would have made a great bunny? Let us know in comments below!

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