10 Great Wrestlers Who Never Got Over In WWE

3. Hideo Itami

hideo itami
WWE.com

KENTA’s run in WWE (well, NXT mainly) was frustrating enough in real-time, but it looks like a complete aberration now that he is back kicking people very, very hard in Japan. Much like Sin Cara, Itami arrived in WWE with high expectations, being one of the biggest non-WWE stars on the planet at the time. He made it to NXT and was immediately placed in a feud with The Ascension, and WOW IT ALL MAKES SENSE NOW.

Hideo Itami never got over at all in WWE, let alone to the level that a man of his talents deserved. His NXT career was as stop-start as it gets, continually blighted by injuries that stopped him gaining any momentum whatsoever. By the time he moved to 205 Live, the writing was inked onto the wall in permanent marker.

There is a school of thought that says that KENTA is one of the best heels in the business today, a villain capable of attracting real heat from crowds in an era where heels are cheered as much as they booed. That the WWE audience reacted to him with such apathy will never cease to amaze.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.