5 Positives And 5 Negatives Heading Into NXT TakeOver: Toronto
9. Negative — Ibushi’s Minimal Role
I’ll start this one off by saying how great it is to see Kota Ibushi—one of the most talented wrestlers on the entire planet—appear in an NXT ring.
What’s arguably not so great though, is the way in which those talents have been utilised.
Sparingly is probably the best way to describe it. All in all, he was brought in for just two dates; an NXT television taping on Oct. 13 and a non-televised live event in LA on Oct. 30. Now, I get that contractual issues may have prevented him from making any further appearances, but either way this still felt like a bit of a tease and ultimately a let-down when he and TJ Perkins bowed out of the Dusty Classic in the quarterfinal stage.
Perhaps I’m being a tad ungrateful here, and I suppose that in the grand scheme of things this doesn’t have much of a bearing on the TakeOver show. Still, I can’t help but feel that that the company could have made slightly better use of someone with the kind of ability Ibushi possesses.