Let's start with his wrestling style. I am not going to pretend like I have been watching this guy for years or I just watched hours of his matches to prepare myself to talk about him. I have seen what wrestling fans have said about him. I have seen some clips of him. I know he's good. In terms of wrestling ability, he will be up there with Daniel Bryan and CM Punk. But how well will his style mix with what the WWE likes to push as their style? One of the things that ruined the potential of the original Sin Cara was that he botched too much. He became a joke to many fans. I don't think that will happen with KENTA. Some fans are already looking forward to him wrestling Sheamus. He can wrestle a stiff style that many wrestling fans like. And if they just let him wrestle his style, he should work out great. He can work well with a lot of guys on the roster. And given how they have let guys like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan go in the ring, I can imagine they will let KENTA be just as good.
How about the fact that he is Japanese? How can that possibly matter? I can say no one will ever accuse the WWE of being racist, but people do say it. When was the last successful Japanese wrestler in the WWE? Yoshi Tatsu went nowhere. Kenzo Suzuki had a run with the tag titles. Funaki? KENTA is better than them. The worst thing they could do is stick him with some stupid gimmick based on him being Japanese. Remember Lord Tensai? He obviously wasn't really Japanese, but he wrestled there for years and they gave him this Japanese-related gimmick. I think it just made a lot of his matches awkward. His mannerisms just didn't click with me. Just let KENTA wrestle. Develop good wrestling feuds for him. What about mic skills? You can say that limited a lot of Japanese wrestlers in the WWE. Does he need a manager? Should they keep him off the main shows until he masters English and can pull off promos like he's CM Punk? Again, just let the guy wrestle. You can develop a lot of good feuds with him that will appeal to wrestling fans. Overall, I don't think the fact that he is Japanese should hold him back. The fact that they hyped his signing like this should mean they want him to work out.
Let me get to the main problem that might hinder this guy. And it has nothing to do with the kind of performer he is or anything about him at all. What is the current state of the WWE? They are doing a lot of things better recently than they have in the last few years, but you still have problems. The WWE still has John Cena as their centerpiece. That will likely not change with KENTA one day debuting. Outside of John Cena, the WWE is busy trying to make new stars and finding ways to keep other stars relevant. They have a ton of gimmicks floating around, but they often fail to create great feuds in the midcard and fail to remain consistent with many guys. KENTA will not debut to be pushed as an A+ player. That is just obvious. The best you can hope is that he is pushed at least as a B+ player. Push him as an upper-midcarder. Actually develop good feuds for him. But they have so many guys to push, there is always a chance he does eventually gets lost in the shuffle. I think the WWE needs to slow it down with all these debuts, gimmick changes, returns, new signings, and all these other things they are doing that create short-term buzz. You just do a bunch of things that you cannot follow up on properly. Do better with the guys there now and try to bring the best out of them and give them better opportunities to better connect with those fans.
Do I think KENTA will do well in the WWE when he eventually debuts? Or is this another Sin Cara? The WWE has shown signs of wanting him to be a big deal already, although you should not make too much of that. I think he has a style that can make him a great success. They should be willing to push him well. It all comes down to where he falls in the roster. There will be stars above him that will be treated as top priorities. In the end, I think the WWE might just lose momentum with him. The fact that he appeals so much to the Japanese audience would mean nothing. The Great Khali is there because he appeals to the large market in India. How do they push him? Alberto Del Rio is supposed to appeal to the Mexican audience. He is not pushed as well these days as he was in the past. A lot of it might come down to how over KENTA becomes with the general audience, but there is no reason to think this guy will be shot to the stars too soon.
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