12 Best Runs By WWE Stars In OTHER Companies

KUSHIDA's rise to the top of the NJPW junior heavyweight division was one of recent memory's great inevitabilities. Even as he toiled away in endless multi-team matches with Alex Shelley, there was a sense that his future was to be filled with memorable reigns as IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, that the position of Ace of that particular division had his name pencilled in. When he pinned Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 10, that position was finally KUSHIDA's.

Okay, Omega's shoulder wasn't down, but that's neither here nor there. History remembers not the details.

Between 2015 and 2019, KUSHIDA was the undoubted MVP of New Japan's junior division. Yes, Will Ospreay had the more spectacular matches, Hiromu Takahashi was the most beloved and others like Marty Scurll and Dragon Lee played their parts, but KUSHIDA was the nucleus around which it all moved. He was the eternal babyface, the homegrown hero in a division of chaotic showmen and dangerous gaijins.

KUSHIDA's run in NXT Has been somewhat disappointing so far, although that can be factored down to a lack of attention and shinier toys getting the rub of the green. Vince McMahon has a pretty wretched record when it comes to booking Japanese performers that aren't Asuka though (and even she has been patchy), so time will tell whether or not his run as junior Ace of NJ represents the highpoint of KUSHIDA's career.