7 Ups And 4 Downs From WWE Raw Christmas Night (Dec 25)

3. Itami Goes Basic

hideo itami brian kendrick
WWE.com

One of the biggest failings of WWE is building wrestlers up properly so casual fans can know/care about a performer. Occasionally, they do it well, but a lot of times, guys come in – particularly from NXT – and we’re expected to know enough about them to get behind them.

For example, Hideo Itami showed up on Raw last week to help out Finn Balor against the Miztourage. He hadn’t been highly touted beyond a couple short video spots, and he only got a brief period to dazzle fans.

Monday, Itami had his first singles match on Raw, facing Brian Kendrick. Kendrick tried to give a little rub in a pre-match interview, but if you’ve seen Hideo wrestle in NXT, the match itself was bland. Itami hit a few solid strikes before nailing a hesitation dropkick in the corner and a Go to Sleep (in Chicago, no less) for the win.

The point here is that if you’re trying to put someone over as a big deal, you need to either talk them up, let them showcase their talent, or both. None of that has really happened yet, giving casual fans little reason to care about him.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.