Hideo Itami may not have had the strongest run in WWE, but it’s easy to forget just how good he truly is. The truth is that he joined WWE after his best years. Even then, Itami was given a strong push in the early days of NXT, even on the cusp of being a main eventer on the yellow brand.
In fact, it was rumored that Itami was going to win the NXT title at Beast In The East in 2015 in Tokyo, but an injury forced him to pull out of the match, with Finn Balor eventually going on to become #1 contender and win the title. And the sad reality is that Itami’s multiple injuries during his NXT run seriously hampered his potential.
Any time he had returned, it seemed like he was sidelined immediately with another injury. As a result, he was never able to reach full main event status, and by 2016, Shinsuke Nakamura had taken the role of the hottest Japanese superstar. Either way, his work on 205 Live has been quite good, and the most consistent he’s been in his WWE run as a whole. With that said, it’s still not too late for Itami to have a resurgence in WWE, and here are five booking steps to do it.
Next Page: 5 ways WWE can resurrect Hideo Itami’s career
