I've seen the Tomarken pilot (though it's been several years) but not the Newton one. Peter would have done fine with the show, but I'm guessing they wanted to go with someone who was younger and had more energy.
The energy part they got, in spades...
About the Whammy Guard...was it actually achieved in the pilot? Because I am wondering if it had an animation(s) to go with it. One thing I noticed about W!'s whammy animations was that he doesn't get blown up, maimed, etc. as much as he did in the original series. I wonder if they saved that for Whammy Guard animations if they had any.