Tag Archives: Hideo Itami

Hideo Itami Was Doomed Before He Began

Back in early 2014, when the WWE signed Japanese pro wrestler KENTA, it was a huge deal. He was one of the biggest stars in Japan and an in-ring wizard. It was also a sign of things to come for WWE’s NXT developmental brand.

Kevin Steen, El Generico, Prince Devitt and KENTA were early coups for the NXT brand. Those four performers were supposed to be the foundation for bringing the NXT brand up to the level of Ring of Honor and other upper indies. Three of the four performers met or exceeded expectations, but KENTA never really even stood a chance to succeed.

KENTA is an innovative wrestler. He invented and popularized many moves that other wrestlers imitated, which is one of the many reasons for his short-lived WWE career.

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Review: NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III

NXT Takeover events are almost always the best show of that weekend. WWE main roster will have a hard time beating NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III when they have Summerslam later today.

Every match was competitive and you can tell every guy wanted to steal the show. Even the guys who lost looked like a million bucks. No one got buried, and a surprise debut, made the show fresh. NXT is in a better place than it was after Shinsuke Nakamura and a few others were brought up to the main roster a few months ago.

On paper, there have been better NXT Takeover shows, but this one kept the crowd’s attention the entire night. The crowd didn’t have any chants that made me think they were bored. I’m sure we will hear a few tonight at Summerslam.

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NXT is Great, but WWE Still Needs Indies

One of the smartest things WWE has done in the last decade was to open the WWE Performance Center to cultivate the stars of the future at NXT (formerly known as Florida Championship Wrestling). Dean Ambrose and current WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins both came from NXT…although one could argue that they would have made it to WWE without NXT.

Dean Ambrose was a star in the indies at places like Combat Zone Wrestling as ‘Jon Moxley’ and Seth Rollins (formerly known as Tyler Black) did fantastic things in Ring of Honor prior to signing with WWE. Both could have made the jump the old school way with an immediate spot on WWE’s main roster.

If you look at the top stars at NXT, most made their name prior to signing with WWE.

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Which Wrestlers in NXT are Ready for WWE’s Main Roster?

Pro wrestling is cyclical. Major stars tend to have 10+ year runs at the top and then fade into the mid-card. WWE had issues in the past trying to build homegrown young talent able to take the next step when the time is right.

Triple H is semi-retired from competing in the ring and is now the Chief Creative Officer for the WWE. He decided to focus on talent development. They opened the WWE Performance Center and rebranded their developmental territory (Florida Championship Wrestling) into NXT. The results have spoken and it has exceeded all expectations.

Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins and Paige have all had success since graduating from NXT to WWE’s main roster. Which stars are ready to take the leap?

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