10 Times WWE Got Buyer's Remorse
6. Hideo Itami
![Chris Jericho Vince Mcmahon Disappointed](https://whatculture-create-cms.s3.amazonaws.com/media/2019/07/2ec8c72f569615af-600x338.jpg)
Sami Zayn couldn't hide his smile when Shinsuke Nakamura debuted against him at 2016's TakeOver: Dallas. The world stopped alongside the 'Underdog From The Underground' to try and make sense of this maverick from New Japan Pro Wrestling ready to kick his way through the competition on the wrestling world's other hottest product.
Somewhere literally and figuratively far away, Hideo Itami had to be crestfallen.
Almost certainly aware of the institutional marginalisation of international performers despite a healthy start to his WWE run with NXT, the former and future KENTA's May 2015 came at exactly the wrong time for his fellow countryman to making such an incredible debut.
All the worries were confirmed when he made his overdue return later that year to unsettling indifference, before another injury put a bullet in him ever getting a fair shake in NXT. By the time his release was mutually agreed in early 2019, so too was the discontent - neither party benefitted from an overtly challenging five year relationship, despite New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Climax profiting hugely from his signing as a weathered icon looking for redemption.