WWE News: Real Reason Hideo Itami Debuted On Monday Night Raw
A huge surprise occurred on Monday Night Raw this week when Hideo Itami made his main roster debut. Instead of taking part in an angle concerning the 205 Live wrestlers, Itami ran out and saved Finn Balor from a beatdown by Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas. This was a surprise because the original WWE reports indicated that Itami would make his debut on 205 Live on Tuesday night as part of the cruiserweight roster. While that is still in the plans, there is a good reason that the WWE brought Hideo out on Monday Night Raw before his 205 Live debut.
What Were The WWE Plans For Hideo Itami?
According to wrestlingnews.co, the reason that Hideo Itami made his main roster debut one day early was to show how important he is before his debut on 205 Live. By having Itami run out and save a huge fan favorite like Finn Balor, the WWE believed that it would help fans invest in the superstar and might cause more to tune in to the WWE Network to watch 205 Live tonight.
Up until now, the cruiserweights might have wrestled on Monday Night Raw, but they never interacted with the main roster’s WWE Superstars. That has changed over the last few weeks. While most of the cruiserweights still have no interaction with main roster stars, Enzo Amore has started an angle with Nia Jax while Matt Hardy has name-dropped the cruiserweights as part of his Woken Matt gimmick.
See you next week.#205Live #G2S pic.twitter.com/Bs3FYZEV2T
— KENTA aka Lil’K (@KENTAG2S) December 13, 2017
Now, Hideo Itami has worked with Finn Balor in a match on Monday Night Raw. With Neville still not working for the WWE, it looks like the WWE will position Itami as their top star on 205 Live. By having Itami work with Balor and actually pick up the win using the GTS, fans can invest in him as a true star on 205 Live.
The Future Of WWE 205 Live
The same website also comments that there is the word that the tickets to the 205 Live touring events are not selling well. The WWE has worked hard to try to pump up those shows. For one thing, Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt will battle on the shows, and there is a chance Hardy could interact with the cruiserweights after his “spot monkey” comments on Twitter.
The WWE also wants to position Hideo Itami as a major star to possibly help sell more tickets by adding star power to the shows. Some WWE mainstream fans might not know that Itami was a Japanese superstar known as KENTA before coming to the WWE.
As KENTA, he wrestled some of the best matches of all time against Daniel Bryan in Ring of Honor and is the man who originally developed the GTS move that CM Punk made popular in the WWE. Now, KENTA has a chance to lead 205 Live, but fans have to learn more about, and accept Hideo Itami for that to happen.
