WWE NXT: 5 Stars Who Deserve Bigger Spotlight After TakeOver: Chicago

Source: WWE.com

2. Kassius Ohno

No one else seems to be coming out and saying, so I will: The way Kassius Ohno has been used since his return is borderline criminal.

After a three-year absence, Ohno returned to NXT in January of 2017. In his first match back, he challenged for the NXT Championship, but lost to Bobby Roode. Since then, he’s sent Elias Samson drifting up to Raw, and he beat Andrade Almas.

That’s it.

For someone with as notable a background as Ohno, it’s stunning to me that he hasn’t been a focus of NXT for the past several months. He had the resume built during his first run in NXT, but in the three years between stints he improved on that resume. The time he spent in places like PWG and EVOLVE only served to catapult Ohno to the upper echelons of wrestling. Heck, he was basically “king of the indies” in 2016.

But any momentum he may have had upon rejoining WWE/NXT has been squandered. The first TakeOver event that took place while he was on the roster? Ohno was a last minute replacement in a mostly throwaway eight person tag team match. And he didn’t even make the card for TakeOver: Chicago. How, and why?

If it’s some kind of “paying your dues” thing, it’s ridiculous. There are few in NXT who can compete on the same level as Ohno. Anyone looking for someone to jump into the spotlight, look no further than Ohno.