KENTA Reflects On His Time In WWE, Being Told He’d Be Fired If He Hurt a Popular Star

KENTA recently looked back at his time in WWE as Hideo Itami including how he never got used to the name Hideo Itami and more. The Pro Wrestling NOAH star was with WWE as Itami from 2014 until 2019, and he spoke about that time in an interview with Sports Graphic Number. You can see some highlights below:

On his biggest challenge in WWE: “All the moves I’d been doing were taken away. Stylistically, they didn’t really want me to go for hard hits. So I wondered what it was that they were looking for in me. It was supposed to be a challenge to see how much of what I’d built up in NOAH would work in WWE, but it ended up becoming about abandoning what I’d built and starting over with a new style from scratch.”

On being worried about injuring big names in WWE: “The fear of injuring an opponent was something I had never felt in Japan. If someone got injured, it was just accepted as part of the job. The injured party would continue to compete while recovering, and it was common practice to keep competing even with minor injuries. The fear of injuring an opponent was something I first felt there. When I was wrestling in NXT against a fairly popular wrestler, the head coach told me, ‘If you injure him, you’re fired,’ which made me angry, but injuring a popular wrestler is considered that serious of a crime there. But if you think too much about not injuring your opponent, you end up unable to do anything. I was stuck in a dead end.”

On competing against Naomichi Marufuji in NOAH while with WWE: “Since NOAH had given me such a warm send-off, I had decided that I wouldn’t go back until I had left behind something that I could be satisfied with. So at the time, I just thought, ‘If I stay like this, I’ll be too embarrassed to go back to Japan.’ However, I was genuinely happy to be asked, and with WWE’s permission, I was able to appear at Ryogoku as Hideo Itami. When I stepped back onto the NOAH ring after a long time, I could sense that the fans were unsure how to cheer for me. Should they call out ‘KENTA!’ or ‘Hideo!’? Looking back, that may have been one of the reasons I decided to return to being KENTA.

“I tried to like the name Hideo Itami, but I never really got used to it. During my time there, it never felt right. Having my name and moves changed made it difficult for me to fight my own way. But at the same time, Finn Bálor (formerly Prince Devitt) joined WWE and changed his name completely, and he’s doing well. So that can’t be the only reason. Those who succeed do, and those who don’t, don’t. I just didn’t work out in WWE.”

On his shoulder injury in WWE: “That shoulder injury really haunts me. I regret having the surgery in the U.S., and I clearly remember the match where I got injured. I made a move I shouldn’t have, and honestly, I can’t help but think that if that hadn’t happened, my wrestling career would have been quite different.”