WWE News: WWE NXT Star Hideo Itami Not Returning To Action Any Time Soon Due To Injury Complications

WWE NXT star Hideo Itami was part of the major list of 2015 injuries, which was sad to see. He was hurt before hurt was cool, however. Itami injured his shoulder last summer right before a big NXT Takeover event. Rumors stated that he was set to win the triple threat No. 1 Contender’s match that he was involved in. This made sense, as WWE wanted to have the NXT Title defended in Japan.

WWE was able to replace the Hideo win with Finn Balor, so the NXT Title defense with Kevin Owens still would go down without much of an issue. Balor has held the NXT Championship ever since winning it in Japan. Many believe he could hold onto it until this summer at the rate he is going right now. He is the top star for WWE NXT, so it makes sense to keep the title on him as long as you can. It only builds him up as a a big threat, so when he is brought to the main roster, he will be considered a big deal.

As for Hideo Itami, he has been sitting out hurt, and yet we all thought he would be back around this time. Now, according to the Wrestling Observer, we know why Itami has been missing so much time. Itami apparently had complications after his surgery, which means he is nowhere close to returning to in-ring action.

Hideo has been to see the staff at Dr. James Andrews office in Birmingham, Alabama, off and on, which is where he had the surgery. It is pretty certain that the surgery went as expected, but with independent performers, there are sometimes a lot of risks of them having more problems than first known. This means Itami most likely had the surgery he needed for the injury he had. However, the moment he began to rely on other areas of the body to compensate for a while, he may have triggered another problem.

He could have even triggered an issue where the surgery took place in areas around it. There are countless things that could have occurred that most in a younger state with less ring time in their career probably would not have much of a problem with. Itami is obviously not happy about all of this. He left Japan and all of his friends and most of his family in 2014, and expected to work at his dream home in the WWE. He has now lived that dream. Sadly, it all came crashing down with the injury.

The hope is that he can still return to action at some point this year. If the doctors can help him, he could be back a lot sooner than the prognosis being given right now, which is currently an unknown date of return. Hideo Itami could always need another surgery to repair the ordeal, but what surgery he might need is currently unknown.

A new surgery also starts him from scratch on recovery time, which is not good for him at all. However, it could lead to him recovering 100 percent, and that is the biggest thing that needs to happen.

With many of the New Japan performers coming in, such as Shinsuke Nakamura, it might make Itami feel better to see friendly faces that could remind him of home and also entice him to work hard and come back faster than anyone can predict right now. As of this writing, WWE nor anyone else really knows when Hideo Itami will make his way back to a ring of any kind, much less WWE. The hope among most is that he can be back by at least the fall, but that all depends on recovery.

[Image via WWE]