KENTA’s True Takeover

At NJPW’s Dominion show on June 9th, 2019, the familiar tones of Shibata’s entrance music preceded the entrance of the Wrestler as he walked his way down the ramp before halting, turning around to point back at the entry way and revealing that he had not come alone. Following Shibata was KENTA, the man formerly known as Hideo Itami in the WWE, returning to Japan under his original name and taking his first steps in a New Japan ring, declaring his presence into the G1 Climax tournament. After what could only be considered a middling performance to round out the tournament at 4-5, KENTA would shock the wrestling world by throwing his hat in with the likes of the Bullet Club, aligning himself with them and turning against his friend and soulmate, leaving Shibata laying and posing atop of him. This action began a trail of utter irreverence by KENTA as a cockier, angrier side emerged: one that didn’t care that the crowd booed or cheered him, but rather reveled in the vitriol and called out the audience of New Japan for their hostile treatment. On the surface, this was KENTA’s frustration boiling over, resulting in him lashing out against the audience while being weaponized by the Bullet Club in their never-ending war within New Japan, but the roots for this side of KENTA were planted long before he had returned to his homeland.

KENTA in NXT: Living in America

Prior to coming to NJPW, the man known as KENTA was signed to the WWE after Pro Wrestling NOAH, KENTA’s former home, had given him their blessing to participate in WWE’s workouts in Florida. KENTA was part of a unique class, arriving to NXT as the developmental brand was beginning to grow in terms of talent and exposure. Having held their first live special event earlier in the year with NXT ArRIVAL, the brand would go on to make the occasional live event a mainstay of their programming, following through on the momentum that the well-received first show had afforded them. In doing so, the WWE would start to sign talent the world over in an effort to expand their rosters, with the new signees typically starting in NXT before being “called up”. KENTA would be among this new wave, having earned a reputation as one of the best wrestlers in the world at that time through his matches across both NOAH and Ring of Honor, with WWE rolling out the proverbial red carpet in his introduction. On July 12th, they would introduce their newest acquisition at a live-event in Osaka, with KENTA interviewing and signing his contract in the ring with Hulk Hogan. He would then be joined by the former Prince Devitt, Finn Balor, forming a tag-team alliance for their first feud in NXT against the Ascension. KENTA, now rechristened Hideo Itami, the “Hero of Pain”, would appear to be on a clear path toward his future in NXT, but it would not be long before Itami’s own path would be filled with anguish.

On May 20th, 2015, a mere eight months after his in-ring debut at NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way, Itami would be sidelined with a shoulder injury, keeping him out of action during a time of great change and upheaval within NXT. Itami would only be able to return in August of the following year, complications in his recovery leaving him on the shelf longer than the original plan before returning at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn to lay out Austin Aries with the G.T.S. This return was short-lived, however, as his career would suffer another setback in the form of a powerslam-gone-wrong during an NXT live event in October, putting him right back on the shelf as his momentum was starting to get underneath him again. Despite working as hard as he did to return from a shoulder injury that kept him sidelined for much too long, Itami’s future would take the shape of his past: watching NXT’s future become the “Now”.

Taken, Not Given

Upon his return to NXT in 2017, Hideo Itami immediately staked a claim for the NXT Championship against the “Glorious” Bobby Roode, but with Hideo Itami making his way back to NXT, things would be completely different. Neville. Balor. Breeze. Owens. Zayn. Joe. Aries. Nakamura. All names that had come and gone from NXT in the vast swathes of time between Itami’s debut and his second return from injury. He was now stepping into an NXT ruled by the likes of Roode, Black, Cien Almas, and the returning McIntyre along with the ever-lingering threat of Eric Young’s unit of SAnitY and the simultaneous rise of the Rebel Heart, Johnny Gargano, and the Sicilian Psychopath, Tommaso Ciampa. The landscape of NXT had been changed, and to this day, the brand has seen the effects of the sheer level of growth during this time period, but for Hideo Itami, it meant stepping into NXT as a “newcomer” for the second time, not a familiar face in the locker room save for the returning Kassius Ohno (The former Chris Hero), and after Itami would fail to capture the NXT Title, his frustrations would boil over, resulting in a brutal attack on Oney Lorcan which would be followed up by Itami failing to tag in for Ohno during a tag-team match before, finally, Itami would get himself DQ’d against Ohno and lay into him with a brutal assault.

Itami would eventually explain where this anger came from, citing that he felt the Full Sail audience wasn’t showing him his due respect. Despite the fact that he had missed the better part of two years, Hideo Itami still felt that he had earned the respect of being considered one of the best wrestlers in the world, demanding that the NXT crowd give him the respect he felt he had earned through his years in NOAH and Ring of Honor. This was met by one of NXT’s newest prospects in Aleister Black, and in one last clash, Itami would fade to black on his time in NXT, losing to Aleister Black at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III and effectively sealing the door on Itami’s run on NXT.

Three months later, it would be announced that Hideo Itami would be coming to the main roster as part of the up-and-coming Cruiserweight Division on 205 Live, but before he would make this official, Itami would return an old favor, assisting Finn Balor in his conflict against the Miztourage to make his debut on Raw. Before long, Itami would then cycle back into the rotation of the Cruiserweight Division. While the talent of the Cruiserweight Division was immense, this sort of placement would serve to further frustrate the man once thought to be the best in the world as it put a ceiling on what he was capable of doing and reaching, not to mention the factor that 205 Live was treated as an after-thought for the majority of its existence, a sad state of affairs that persists even today and perhaps even more so.

Itami’s craving and desire for respect and adulation painted the entirety of his run on 205 Live, his time as a babyface lasting merely a few months before his frustrations took hold once again. Through his time on 205 Live, we’d see the flashes of the old KENTA, his wrestling style showing signs of his harder-hitting style against his Cruiserweight peers as he fought to attain the respect that alluded him for his entire run, but one year after his arrival on 205 Live, it would be announced that Hideo Itami would be released from his WWE contract, with his friends and peers in the locker room putting together a farewell video for the man once considered one of the greatest in the world. While Hideo Itami, the character, would fight and crave the respect of the fans, Kenta Kobayashi, the man, would bask in the adulation and admiration of his peers as he made his exit from the WWE and leaving the American front of pro-wrestling.

Still Not Enough

On June 9th, 107 days after WWE officially released him from his contract, Hideo Itami would officially reclaim his old name as “KENTA” and would make waves with his latest venture. At NJPW’s Dominion event that night, KENTA would walk down a New Japan ramp to their ring for the first time in his storied career, being brought out and represented by his friend and soulmate, Katsuyori Shibata. Back in 2005, Shibata and KENTA would form a tag-team known as “The Takeover”, with KENTA welcoming Shibata to NOAH during his time wandering the independent circuit as a true freelancer. Now, as if returning the favor, Shibata would bring KENTA to New Japan, and on a night where alumni from other wrestling companies declared their intention to enter the G1 Climax, KENTA would insert his name into the tournament bracket that year with Shibata at his side.

This announcement would earn KENTA an ovation from the crowd, but this would prove to be short-lived as KENTA would go into the G1 as an “outsider” to the New Japan crowd. After all, the Japanese audience knows KENTA for his exploits in NOAH, a rival company to NJPW, and his latest appearance in Japan was in NOAH as a special guest for Naomichi Marufuji’s 20th Anniversary representing the WWE as Hideo Itami. This gave many a mixed signal to the audience during his run in the G1, and while KENTA began in impressive fashion by defeating Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi, he would hit a wall, ending his G1 run with a 4-5 record. The crowd response he attained on his first night would dwindle, no longer buoyed by the presence of Shibata as the crowd’s sympathetic favorite. KENTA was still on the hunt for the respect he was missing since his time in NXT, and the reaction of the New Japan audience to his arrival was more reminiscent of the American audience that rejected him and that he rejected in turn. Something had to give, and the Fang would sink his teeth into a new alliance.

During the G1 Climax Finals, KENTA would team with the Chaos/Sekigun alliance against the Bullet Club in a six-man tag match. As KENTA stayed on the apron, he would jaw-jack with the members of the Bullet Club on the opposite, yet when his time came, he stepped off of the apron, leaving his teammates to fend for themselves, similar to Hideo Itami’s betrayal of Kassius Ohno in NXT. As Ishii would turn the ship around, however, KENTA would strike with a Busaiku Knee, dropping Ishii and placing him on a silver platter for the BC, standing over the Stone Pitbull’s defeated body as Tama Tonga scored the pinfall and KENTA sealed his membership with the Bullet Club. In a fit of unbridled rage, Shibata would rush down to the ring, attacking KENTA and fending off the BC until he finally succumbed to the sheer numbers and underhanded ways of the Bullet Club, falling to KENTA as he locked in a sleeper hold followed by KENTA co-opting Shibata’s own finishing move, the PK, laying him out in the center of the ring as a symbol of his defiance. Having laid his soulmate out, it would ignite a war between KENTA and the rest of the New Japan ecosystem from the fans to the roster, and now, all eyes were on KENTA once again.

The Fang Revived

In its original incarnation, the Bullet Club, under the guidance of Prince Devitt, was a stable full of perceived outsiders to Japan, as if they were a foreign invading force taking New Japan by storm. In the backstage comments following the G1 Finals, Tama Tonga would embrace KENTA as “one of, if not the, greatest wrestler on the planet”, showing KENTA the reverance and respect he desired as a man on his own level. In this display, the BC, for the first time since the coup by Yujiro Takahashi in 2014, would embrace a Japanese-born talent into their ranks…and yet, it was entirely appropriate. KENTA, by this time, was truly an outsider even within his own country. The New Japan audience did not embrace him as readily as he was expecting, given his previous connections to NOAH, the WWE, and his middling performance during the G1 Climax.

The crowd would embrace KENTA by proxy of the man he was affiliated with in Katsuyori Shibata, the man who fought and clawed his way to re-earn the trust of the NJPW locker room and fanbase since his departure in 2005 and his return in 2012 before signing and ending his decade-long turn as a freelance talent in 2016. In returning to Japan, KENTA sought a hero’s welcome, and yet, he was barely embraced as a member of the roster, let alone a hero. KENTA would even reference how Shibata “must’ve been happy” to receive the reaction he did, indicating perhaps a sense of jealousy in Shibata’s connection with the crowd. Through his run in NXT, in 205 Live, and now, in New Japan, KENTA was struggling to recapture the adulation that followed him from NOAH and Ring of Honor. Rejected by America and shunned in Japan, KENTA found himself as a man without a country…until the Bullet Club opened their doors to him, showing him the respect that he desired and was missing for so long. The Fang had been revived.

The new, revived KENTA would claim his first championship not long after this development, defeating Ishii at Royal Quest for the NEVER Openweight Championship, a title that KENTA would later claim he didn’t care about as he would find his Road to the Tokyo Dome impeded by the Samurai of Chaos and Katsuyori Shibata’s classmate, Hirooki Goto. Through all of this, KENTA would take to social media, mocking and calling out the NJPW fanbase for their treatment of him after his betrayal of Shibata, poking at the audience and, all the while, reveling in the boos that the crowd would throw at him. If he couldn’t get their respect, he would bask in their hatred as the Fang of the Bullet Club, and no bigger moment would present itself than at Wrestle Kingdom 14’s second night on January 5th, 2020.

KENTA- “You Will Know Who I Am”

At the Tokyo Dome on January 5th, KENTA would go heads-up against Hirooki Goto, the Samurai of Chaos fighting for not only the honor of New Japan, but also for the honor of his best friend, Katsuyori Shibata, taking the battle in his place due to Shibata’s forced retirement from the sport. KENTA, perhaps because of his nonchalant approach to the match, would be defeated by Goto. KENTA, at this point, had already gotten what he wanted from the crowd and took every step in the match to shower in the hatred of 30,000 fans in attendance. Goto, on the other hand, had motivation on his side, fighting to reclaim the NEVER Openweight Championship, stating that KENTA had corrupted the honor of that title by his deeds as well as fighting for the honor of his friend. It stands to reason that KENTA simply did not care about the match and, while inflicting punishment on Goto, he did not care to win the match, merely enjoying the thrill that the crowd gave him. It no longer mattered if they respected KENTA: the crowd was content in using their energy to boo the once-beloved figure of Japanese wrestling, and now, all eyes, in victory or defeat, were on KENTA.

In the main event of the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 14, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship would both be on the line in the finale of the Double Gold Rush tournament as Tetsuya Naito would compete against his rival to the claim of the title of NJPW’s Shuyaku, Kazuchika Okada. After a classic bout, Tetsuya Naito would finally find courage within his destiny, dethroning Kazuchika Okada and attaining immortality, defeating Okada at the Tokyo Dome and becoming the first man to claim both championships in NJPW. The crowd was on their feet, seeing the realization of a dream in front of them and cheering on El Ingobernable as he began his roll-call of his L.I.J. teammates…only to be interrupted by a furious KENTA, laying him out in the middle of the ring. 30,000 people, already angered by KENTA’s demeanor, were now incensed by this act of audacity, chanting at him to “Go home!” while KENTA would pose atop of Naito, sitting on his chest, legs-crossed just like Shibata, laughing as he held both titles in his hands for the cameras.

This would propel KENTA even above Jay White as not only the most hated and despised man in New Japan, but it would also place KENTA firmly into the No. 1 Contender spot, setting up a match between Naito and KENTA for the New Begnning in Osaka, the same location where KENTA first made his presence known to the New Japan audience. This would be questioned by Naito, citing that KENTA is leaping ahead of Okada, White, and Ibushi as contenders for the championship. To add even further intrigue, White would be questioned about KENTA’s actions, brushing them aside and mentioning that he “had a plan” and was surprised that others would act as if he didn’t know KENTA would commit such an act. In the meantime, KENTA would merely continue to bask in the newfound disgust of the New Japan audience, egging them on in every venue he would find. Perhaps it wasn’t “respect” that he craved deep down. “Respect” was a byproduct of his true desire: the desire for the world to know who he was.

KENTA and Tetsuya Naito: Fang vs. Destino

At the New Beginning in Osaka on February 9th, KENTA will have his opportunity for his own brush with immortality, looking to become the second man in NJPW history to claim both the Heavyweight and the IC Championships. In his hunt for “respect” and desire for acknowledgement across the world, this would etch his name into the annals of wrestling history. Much like his signing with WWE and his debut with New Japan, all eyes are now, once more, on KENTA as he attempts to deprive NJPW of another “feel-good” moment that is Naito’s championship reign. Will the New Beginning see the birth of “KENTA Two-Belts”, or will Naito’s iron-clad Destino shatter the Fang as it attempts to sink its teeth? If there was any place that was tailor-made for KENTA, it would be the Osaka-jo Hall. Once more, all eyes, for better or worse, are on KENTA.

Fin~