WWE NXT: How to Build Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hideo Itami

With Shinsuke Nakamura winning the NXT Championship, fans can look forward to an eventual first-time-ever singles match against Hideo Itami in WWE NXT.

It is definitely an exciting time to be a WWE fan. All you have to do is look at the company’s developmental brand in WWE NXT and see how the roster has included a variety of wrestling veterans and WWE prospects.

After the departure of Finn Balor to the main roster, it looks as if Shinsuke Nakamura has become the new face of NXT. This comes after defeating Samoa Joe at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn last week for the NXT Championship. While it’s a big win for the Japanese wrestling superstar, another hailing from the Land of the Rising Sun is starting to gain some traction.

Hideo Itami was in the NXT Championship picture in May 2015 before he was written off of television due to a legitimate shoulder injury. While there’s no rush to get him into the NXT Championship picture right this second, there will come a time when Itami is going to find himself wanting to get a championship match.

The hope is that the WWE creative team down at Full Sail University is going to keep the belt on Nakamura for an extended period of time. This could be a slow-building feud that can be used to book NXT’s TakeOver event held in conjunction with WrestleMania weekend. A match between these two Japanese strikers is going to be something special for the WWE Universe and it should be on a marquee card for NXT.

It’s a match that hasn’t happened before. Itami was wrestling for Pro Wrestling Noah, while Nakamura competed for New Japan Pro Wrestling. The only time fans saw them clash was during a 2013 tag team match. The quality of the lone video found is not the greatest, but it does give us a sample of what we could expect if the two ever faced each other for the NXT Championship.

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How does one build up that sort of match with a little more than seven months until NXT has a TakeOver event in Orlando, Fla?

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It seems like the plan is for Itami to have a feud with Austin Aries that is sure to help build towards both wanting to rise in the NXT Championship rankings. This could be followed up with a feud involving Bobby Roode, who is going to try and do everything he can to make a big impact in the NXT locker room.

One also would love to see Itami feud with some of the other up-and-comers who might be getting a call up towards the new Cruiserweight Division. This would include some rivalries against Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano.

Probably around January or February, we will see confirmation that Itami is named the number-one contender for the NXT Championship. But what the current NXT Champion be doing while Itami continues to climb the ranks towards that eventual championship match?

Nakamura will have to deal with Samoa Joe, who is going to utilize the rematch clause that every champion has. But Nakamura could also have some entertaining matches with some of the other members of the roster that include Aries, Roode, Gargano, and Ciampa.

Some fans may feel that Itami deserves a shot at the NXT Championship before many of these men. However, he was out for more than a year in WWE NXT. We also have an unfinished storyline involving who exactly attacked Itami before his scheduled number-one contender’s match against Tyler Breeze and Finn Balor. Hopefully, it will have a better payoff than Rikishi attacking “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

Besides, Nakamura facing Itami would be a big match between two of the top Japanese superstars. They have similar striking abilities in a nearly guaranteed five-star match.

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