Adam Rose's story of how he came to be on WWE's main shows might change your perspective on comedy mid-carders

A lot of WWE fans, whether you watched him in NXT while he was working the Leo Kruger gimmick or if your first exposure was as the lollipop-sucking leader of the Exotic Express, have been underwhelmed by the Adam Rose character.

I count myself as someone who is disappointed that someone I believe to be a talented, entertaining wrestler hasn't been "allowed" to work a more serious gimmick.  But an interview Rose gave to Chuck Carroll of CBS DFW late last week has caused me to re-evaluate that reaction, at least somewhat.

The assumption I made (and by making an assumption, I made an ass out of 'u' and 'mption') was that the Brit-pop party boy role had been given to him as a way to fill a need on the NXT and WWE rosters.  Hearing Rose tell it, that wasn't the case at all, though.

Adam wasn't so much an evolution or a tweaking as it was becoming myself. I think a lot of people will tell you that in this business, that a lot of the characters are just themselves with the volume turned up and that's what Adam was for me. A lot of people, when they finally saw what I was doing, turned around and said 'Oh that's lovely! You're finally just being yourself, that's wonderful!'

He discusses his father being British, and his lifelong love of British comedy as being an inspiration for the leader of the Rosebuds.  And it doesn't sound like a guy who loved playing a bad ass big game hunter who has been shoehorned into his current assignment.

And for someone who has been trying to become a pro wrestler since he was fifteen years old, he certainly isn't disappointed to be on the main stage of WWE.  Whether or not you believe him about being thrilled to play his current character, getting to where he currently is is part of a process Rose has put a lot into.

A lot of work goes into this and I don't know if people realize the amount of work that goes into this before it even happens , before it even materializes. There were years and years of work that went into it so, I think the greatest - the feeling I felt the most was a feeling of fulfillment that a life's long work had finally reached its fruition so to be speak. But obviously, I was nervous and I was anxious, but I also knew that...Adam Rose was born for the big stage, and there's no other place to put him...

The main question/issue that remains for me is if a gimmick like Adam Rose limits his ability to rise beyond a certain point on the card.  The man behind the character dodges a question from Carroll about if he thinks he'll need to substantially change the character to enter the title picture, but reminds us that there's a place for everything under the big, weird tent of professional wrestling:

I think that either way this could happen down the line. I don't like the fact we box ourselves in all the time. Everyone is always boxing themselves in to their boxes and saying 'Oh, this is how things are traditionally done.' And yeah, there's a box for that and a box for this. Everything is a mold and molds are made to be broken. I think it's just a matter of having a little open-minded thinking as to what the future holds as to where Adam Rose actually fits.

Finally, you can see where his positive outlook on completely changing his character and answering the call to work it on the main stage with very little time to perfect it in Developmental comes from based on the advice he's built his career on.  Advice that came from Triple H himself,

This is a marathon not a sprint. And legends are made through the marathon.

It's a quick interview packed with everything from his opinion on hot issues like Sting, SummerSlam and WWE 2K15 to background on his lifelong rivalry with fellow South African Justin Gabriel.  Give it a listen.

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Where do you stand with the Adam Rose gimmick these days, Cagesiders?  Does hearing the man behind it talk about how he developed it and approaches his career change your mind at all?