Hideo Itami And The Unfortunate Side Of NXT

Hideo Itami is injured again and, if he was ever seen as a future star for WWE, that time is probably over.

Itami was injured while wrestling Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss at a NXT Live event in front of a couple hundred of people.

Which begs the question, why is Itami in NXT wrestling green rookies in front of small audiences?

Most of us love NXT. While the weekly show has become a bit bland with nothing but squash matches and promos, the TakeOver special are consistently the best thing on the WWE Network. NXT is the Indy Darling for the WWE fan. They have a lot of talent that we followed for years on the Independent and Japanese scene and now we’re happy and proud that they’ve made it to WWE.

Except, they’re in NXT. Wrestling green rookies in front of small audiences.

For some reason, guys like Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, and more are stuck in NXT “learning to work WWE style” while Mojo Rawley, Apollo Crews, and Baron Corbin spend time on the main roster floundering.

Itami’s most recent injury highlights the problem with NXT. Here’s a guy who was a star in Japan as KENTA. He has wrestled all over the world and has put on a handful of memorable matches in Japan and America. He came into NXT around the same time as Finn Balor. He won a tournament and was part of the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at Wrestlemania last year. He probably would have spent another year in NXT before getting called up, but, unfortunately, he suffered a shoulder injury and had to miss a year of action. He returned in August, and is now on the shelf again with a neck injury thanks to a botched powerslam by Riddick Moss.

Again, why is Itami wrestling Riddick Moss in front of a hundred people?

Aside from wanting to make NXT a touring brand, there’s no logical reason as to why Itami, Joe, Nakamura, ect… are stuck in NXT. The top stars in NXT (Joe, Nakamura, Itami, Aries, and Roode) are all 35-years or older. They all have a lot of bumps on their body. They won’t be around forever. Why are they wasting their time in NXT to draw 100 people at a high school gym?

NXT is supposed to be developmental. You know, where talent is developed. Those guys don’t need to be developed. Maybe there’s a WWE style learning curve and I know WWE does television different than TNA or NJPW, but AJ Styles is doing pretty well for himself. And how do those guys need more “WWE style seasoning” but Lince Dorado and Noam Dar are somehow ready for Raw?

This is the risk of having big names wrestle in NXT. They get injured by a guy who doesn’t know what he’s doing, and then what? The tail end of his career has been wasted because one guy wanted to gain online fans after years of getting trashed for his burials.

Yes, guys like Moss and Sabbatelli and others gain invaluable experience because they get to wrestle some of the best wrestlers in the world. But if they’re not even ready for NXT TV, why are they wrestling these guys? And is the risk really worth the reward? Riddick Moss isn’t going to be the next big WWE star in five years because he got to wrestle Nakamura 20 times a month for a few months. Maybe he’ll pick up a few things, he’ll be a big star because WWE decided to push him and the trainers did a great job getting him ready.

The health and star potential that is already in front of you definitely isn’t worth it. If you want guys like Moss and Sabbatelli to improve and gain experience by wrestling veterans, that’s when you send down guys like Darren Young, Jack Swagger, R-Truth, and Titus or take the old guys like The Headbangers, Curt Hawkins and Jinder Mahal and use them on NXT so the new guys have someone to beat.

I’m just baffled as to how WWE has at least four guys in NXT who could be major players on the main roster, but they insist on keeping them in NXT despite the obvious need for some type of help and depth on Raw and Smackdown.

While there should be some concern over bringing them up too early and without a plan, I don’t know why it would be a major concern. Yes, Corbin and Crews are dying on the main roster because they were brought up without a plan. The guys I’m talking about aren’t Corbin and Crews. They have a personality, they have the in-ring skills, they have the charisma, and they have the name value. Even if their booking isn’t great, they’re so good that they will make it work.

Itami could have been a big player on the main roster. What he lacks on the mic, he makes up for in the ring. He could’ve jumped right into the Cruiserweight division and been one of the top guys. Instead, he’ll spend even more time on the shelf, wondering if he’ll ever get his shot on the main roster and questioning why he wasn’t already there.