In a matter of days, wrestling fans will find out if the months of rumors are true: Will Japanese superstar KENTA finally make a splash in WWE? The 33-year-old Pro Wrestling Noah veteran has reached legendary status in his home country, and diehard fans are beside themselves over what bringing one of the top wrestling talents in the world into WWE could mean. Would he rekindle his Ring of Honor rivalry with Daniel Bryan? Can KENTA make a big enough impact to live up to the hype? If KENTA comes to WWE, he wont be the first major Japanese star to appear in the Stamford-based promotion, but he might be the most highly touted in the past 30 years. Japanese wrestlers have had mixed success in WWE throughout the years. Some failed to connect with audiences, which could be because of a language barrier or due to stereotypical ethnic booking, while several were quite successful. Theres no telling what KENTAs role or impact in WWE would be, but his ceiling is very high. That alone gives everyone reason to sit up and taken notice if and when he debuts. And if KENTA comes and does well out of the gate, we could see him vaulting past several of these wrestlers at a rapid rate. And no, Yokozuna is not on this list since he was born in San Francisco and billed from Polynesia. If anyone is wondering why Tensai isnt on this list, they can stop reading now.
Honorable mention: Hakushi
Hakushi had a 1995 feud with Bret Hart, which turned out to be his ceiling in WWE. When you follow that feud up with a loss to Barry Horowitz (and then a tag team with Horowitz), you know youre not making the main event again anytime soon. Hakushi looks like he could have amounted to something in WWE, but it never materialized. More than 15 years later, WWE would recycle the Japanese writing on the face idea with Tensai, with about as much success.