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Hideo Itami injured...again. :(


C.S.

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Damn. :(

 

 

 

The injury occurred while taking a powerslam gone wrong during a tag match on October 1st where he teamed with Shinsuke Nakamura to take on Riddick Moss and Tino Sabbatelli.

No word on his exact injury, but we’re told it’s related to his neck.

 

http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/hideo-itami-injured-neck-video/

 

Twitter video: https://twitter.com/pwunlimited/status/782698358116757504/video/1

This really sucks, and it's one of the drawbacks of the NXT program - world class wrestlers facing green-as-grass rookies. I realize they need to learn, but there has to be a better way.

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This is one of the best wrestlers ever (#13 on my GWE) and he's wasting away in Largo. I understand that he's not Shinsuke Nakamura, he doesn't have that star potential in NXT or the main roster, but the fact that he's wrestling someone like Riddick Moss in front of 200 people is completely ridiculous.

 

I hope this is the end of his WWE tenure. It's not fun watching him in this state. It really, really bums me out, actually. He was hurt from the moment Balor walked in, but now with two injuries, there's no hope.

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With the amount of injuries in the last two years or so can anyone really say the WWE style is a good thing anymore? The conditioning stuff at the Performance Center led to a rash of shoulder injuries and their big-time match working style has even more wrestlers getting hurt. Then you add in the NXT method of putting experienced workers in with guys hired based on their physiques and it leads to catastrophe. Why do so many have to toil away in NXT when Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson--who were likely known by a very, very small percentage of the Raw audience--allowed to leapfrog developmental and go straight to cable TV?

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Ironically, Gallows and Anderson would have benefited from a few months in NXT. They're currently over on the main roster like a wet fart in church - meaning not at all. Part of that isn't their fault - they never win the "big one" - but they're not very interesting characters either. They were fun when they were teasing the "will they or won't they?" stuff with AJ, and I suspect that would have continued with Finn, but his injury put a crimp in any such plans (if any existed to begin with).

 

As for Itami, this whole situation sucks - and even worse, it was entirely unnecessary. I figured he would have been called up to Raw or Smackdown after his first injury. Why waste even more time in NXT? Especially when they dropped the whole "who attacked Itami?" angle, which could have been really interesting and fun (despite WWE's reputation for not handling "mysteries" well). Samoa Joe would have been fine for that spot, and it would have been a fresh, interesting match - far more appealing than Joe vs. Nakamura II, that's for sure.

 

NXT feels like it's in such a holding pattern right now, and heatless rematches are the last thing anyone wants. It's beyond obvious that Nakamura will retain, so why bother? And if he doesn't, that's even worse.

 

For Joe's sake, I hope he gets called up to Smackdown. He would be instantly lost in the shuffle on Raw. I'm sure some dudebro "This is Awesome!" type considers Joe vs. Lesnar a "dream match" but no one in Titan Towers feels that way and neither do I.

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The Nak-Joe pull apart brawl on the last show was super heated, not sure what you've been watching

 

Eh, I don't care about Joe. I don't care about their feud. A manufactured "heated" brawl doesn't interest me because Joe doesn't interest me. I think he's past his prime. With that said, I recognize there are at least a year of "epic dream matches" (yawn) for him on Smackdown that the dudebro "this is awesome!" fans will salivate over. I'm actually in favor of him being called up because there's nothing left for him in NXT IMO.

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The conditioning stuff at the Performance Center led to a rash of shoulder injuries and their big-time match working style has even more wrestlers getting hurt. Then you add in the NXT method of putting experienced workers in with guys hired based on their physiques and it leads to catastrophe.

 

Should the WWE shut down the Performance Center? Is it honestly more trouble than it's worth? Should the WWE adopt a licensing system similar to auto racing where you can only compete in series at a certain level with a certain license? Does tag wrestling become a pro-am deal like what sports car racing has?

 

This was a freak accident. If the same thing happened with a "veteran" worker it would have been seen as such and everyone would have moved on.

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The funny thing about people reacting with "Why is Itami wrestling some rookie!?" is that people have been saying for months now that NXT should be having the experienced guys wrestling the green dudes on the Florida loop house shows because it was pointless to have something like Nakamura vs. Samoa Joe in front of 50 people when two younger wrestlers could be getting a learning experience against Nak or Joe.

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The Nak-Joe pull apart brawl on the last show was super heated, not sure what you've been watching

Eh, I don't care about Joe. I don't care about their feud. A manufactured "heated" brawl doesn't interest me because Joe doesn't interest me. I think he's past his prime. With that said, I recognize there are at least a year of "epic dream matches" (yawn) for him on Smackdown that the dudebro "this is awesome!" fans will salivate over. I'm actually in favor of him being called up because there's nothing left for him in NXT IMO.

Why do you keep going on about dudebros? There are posters on this board who would be eager to see Joe on one of the main brands who in no way fit that description.

 

As for KENTA, I feel bad for his shitty luck, but honestly, he hasn't clicked in NXT even when healthy.

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I like Samoa Joe but I'll admit, I do think some of the "dream match" stuff like him in a feud with Brock Lesnar on the main roster seems... really delusional. I still don't buy Kevin Owens as a top guy either. It just feels... hokey. Too fake. Unrealistic.

 

Booking is obviously a factor but it's going to be really hard to get the main roster audience to buy into a Kevin Owens or Samoa Joe beating a Brock Lesnar.

 

I agree with C.S. in that Samoa Joe is WAY past his prime. It's a shame he was wasted for so many years in TNA. He should have probably been picked up by WWE in 2005 after his great run in ROH.

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Are there no decently experienced guys around who can work with the green workers without risking guys like Hideo Itami? There only seem to be three kinds of wrestlers in NXT
, the 15+ year veterans who are there to prop up the brand, the 5+ year guys hot off the indies and the fresh out of the performance center trainees. It's important for the wrestlers in the last category to grow better and the only way they can do that is by wrestling people better than them, but shouldn't they stick to the mid level guys and work their way to that level of skill instead of going up against the performers out of their league and potentially hurt them while not learning jack or shit because of the talent and experience disparity?

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I agree with sentiment that it was an accident and that Riddick Moss isn't to blame; but still, is it really a good idea putting the best wrestlers in the world in the hands of people with very little experience?

 

It's not like it's acceptable for the lesser talented people to be injured by rookies because it isn't, but there's a reason guys like Honky don't take bumps on the indies from total randoms

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I agree with sentiment that it was an accident and that Riddick Moss isn't to blame; but still, is it really a good idea putting the best wrestlers in the world in the hands of people with very little experience?

 

It's not like it's acceptable for the lesser talented people to be injured by rookies because it isn't, but there's a reason guys like Honky don't take bumps on the indies from total randoms

Green guys wrestling with someone way more experienced than them was how it was done for decades until the territory system died off. The experienced wrestler is the one calling the match so he has 100% control of what happens it's not like he's just in there at the mercy of some guy doing random shit to him.

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I'm more in the "past his prime" camp. He's much heavier and slower than his peak, which is expected, but he still tries for the same style, jumping and diving around in most matches. I feel like he'd be better off if he adapted a little more to what his body can do now. Then again, maybe it's just perspective. He's certainly better now than he was before coming in, he let himself go for years.

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