9 Indie Stars Who Didn't Catch On In WWE
4. Low Ki
You either love Low Ki or you hate him. Or you are ambivalent towards him. Okay, so all of the options are available, but there's something about The World Warrior that just screams 'square peg round hole'. When wrestling outside of the major companies started to get more of a spotlight in the early to mid 2000s Low Ki was one of the big names, along with guys like Samoa Joe, CM Punk, AJ Styles and Bryan Danielson.
Low Ki was far stranger than those four, however. A more serious than serious type of character, Low Ki experienced great success in PWG and ROH among other places before finally being signed by WWE in 2008.
Named Kaval, he took part in the second series of NXT in 2010 and actually won the thing, but four months after winning the series he was released by the company. Kaval just didn't fit, for reasons that are difficult to explain but easy to see.
Low Ki returned not long after, heading back to his old stamping grounds to, erm, stamp folk. He famously wrestled an entire match in a suit at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 7, coming up short against Prince Devitt and Kota Ibushi in something of a junior dream match.