10 Things WWE Fans Need To Know About KUSHIDA
4. He Arrives In Excellent Physical Condition
As has become sadly apparent, KUSHIDA's compatriots Hideo Itami and Shinsuke Nakamura didn't just make the rare jump from Japan to capitalise on their western crossover appeal and the financial opportunity.
Very quickly, we realised that both were broken down versions of the stars that came to prominence. KENTA's years of levelling up to bigger opponents and Nakamura's generally insane brand of strong style caught up to them, and they each appear in WWE not as husks, exactly, but shadows of their former elite selves. We're not equating KUSHIDA with Itami and Nakamura on his ethnicity, to be clear: no, like the vast majority of puroresu practitioners, KUSHIDA has for years wrestled a very punishing style consistent with - well, even more painful and advanced than, given his status as division talisman - Japanese wrestling's more overtly dangerous style.
KUSHIDA, New Japan's Junior Ace for the best part of an incredible decade, showed no signs of slow down throughout 2018; game not only to maintain his grasp over the Junior Heavyweight Championship by picking up the baton relinquished by Hiromu Takahashi at King of Pro-Wrestling, KUSHIDA, a seemingly ageless workhorse, split his time (sorry) between RevPro and Ring Of Honor, in which he performed in a feature length World Title match opposite Jay Lethal.
KUSHIDA did not leave NJPW because he no longer fancied working to his utmost; he left because so much of his hard work went... not unappreciated, exactly, but unheralded.