10 Wrestlers Who Can Succeed Finn Balor As NXT's Icon
8. Hideo Itami
Finally ready to return to NXT television after a 13-month absence through injury, Hideo Itami looks set to resume the progress he was making in WWE. The former Kenta visibly struggled throughout his opening months with the company. Though his reputation ensured he was immediately over with the crowd, Itami was having a hard-time adapting his hard-hitting puroresu style to fit the WWE blueprint, and his character work was wooden and rigid.
Itami had started easing-up, however. He was looking increasingly confident and comfortable prior to the injury, and despite this considerable setback, there’s little reason to believe that Hideo won’t be pushed as one of NXT’s biggest deals upon his return. All he needs is a little bit longer to find a balance between his strong style approach and WWE’s preferred cleaner style of wrestling, and he’ll be flying again.
Itami was originally written-out in a “mystery attack” angle. Found in the parking lot prior to June 2015’s TakeOver: Unstoppable, an unknown assailant had left Itami beaten and broken. The prime candidate (Kevin Owens) has since left NXT, and there aren’t NXT main eventers left from that time period to realistically reveal as the perpetrator, but there are a number of great matches waiting for him in NXT.
Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe have risen to the top in his absence, with both potential match-ups sitting highly on any NXT fan’s list of dream matches. It’s likely that Itami will work a few lesser opponents to reintroduce him in NXT, but a blockbuster match against either Nakamura or Joe would make him a made man in NXT, and WWE would be wise to pull the trigger sooner rather than later.