10 Japanese Wrestlers Who Were Totally Wasted In America
4. Kenzo Suzuki
Having wrestled in New Japan, All Japan, Dragon Gate, AAA and many other promotions, Kenzo Suzuki’s pedigree speaks for itself. However, most people will only remember him for a short run in WWE in 2004-05.
Suzuki debuted on SmackDown with a victory over Scotty 2 Hotty and went onto a feud with Billy Gunn. He was then placed in a tag-team with Renee Dupree and became a tag-team champion. Sadly, this was to prove to be the highlight of his run as the next thing WWE did was slap a comedy gimmick on him.
Suzuki began to sing - and not particularly well. If for some reason you want to put yourself through it, watch him murder ‘New York, New York’ above. Close your eyes and you can almost hear Vince chuckling away. There was a short feud with John Cena for the US Title (which included a rap battle), but the writing was on the wall for Kenzo. After an injury, he was released in 2005 at which point he would go on to achieve a lot more elsewhere.