WWE Raw: Hideo Itami Makes a Surprise Debut to Save Finn Balor
By Bryan Heaton
Three years after Finn Balor debuted as Hideo Itami’s partner, Itami returned the favor on WWE Raw.
For the past few weeks on WWE Raw, Finn Balor has gone up against members of The Miztourage, Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel. After a pair of singles matches, this week it was a handicap match. Balor did a fairly good job of holding his own, but the numbers game proved too difficult to overcome. Dallas and Axel took an intentional disqualification loss to just inflict more punishment in a two on one beat down.
But when all seemed its bleakest, Balor got a pick me up from a surprising source – Hideo Itami. The debuting Itami was not scheduled to appear until the following night’s episode of 205 Live. However, Itami came out anyway, returning the favor for Balor doing the same for him three years ago in NXT.
The duo then competed in a tag team match against The Miztourage. Balor eventually made the hot tag to Itami, who lit up Curtis Axel with a series of strikes before putting him away with a Go To Sleep.
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Itami had actually debuted on WWE’s main roster back in 2015. He was the NXT representative in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 31. Sadly, Itami’s NXT career was full of stops and starts due to injuries. When healthy, though, Itami has always been a force to be reckoned with in the ring.
For those unfamiliar with Itami, he is a prolific striker who can pick an opponent apart with ease. Many of his moves made it to WWE before he did, as he popularized the GTS (before CM Punk) and the busaiku knee strike (used by Daniel Bryan). His history in Japan, where he was known as KENTA, is well documented, and his time in NXT was filled with great matches (between injury layoffs, at least).
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Having Itami debut on Raw ahead of his 205 Live debut is a great decision, especially if it leads to some crossover between heavyweights and cruiserweights. It may not go anywhere, but for this one night at least, it’s nice to dream.