Hideo Itami’s rocky road through WWE is well chronicled. The former KENTA was the company’s first big Japanese signing of the NXT era, and seemed close to a main roster call-up at WrestleMania 31. But the injury bug bit, and kept biting for the next couple years. Even as he returned to television for the black-and-yellow brand in 2017, there were reports he was ready to return to Japan when his contract is up.
He was moved from NXT to 205 Live late last year. His arrival was hyped for several weeks, but shortly after he debuted, trouble resurfaced with rumors of heat over his finisher injuring Brian Kendrick on Christmas Day.
Then, after a surprising loss to Roderick Strong on the Feb. 6 episode of 205 Live which ended Itami’s run in the Cruiserweight Title Tournament after only one match, he tweeted this:
It’s Over
— Hideo Itami / 伊丹英雄 (@HideoItami) February 7, 2018
Which, combined with everything which came before, had folks thinking Hideo was saying goodbye. And maybe he will soon. But after speculative posts started hitting the web based on that tweet, he sent another one:
But Not Done Yet
— Hideo Itami / 伊丹英雄 (@HideoItami) February 7, 2018
Oh... you.
There’s no information on when Itami’s WWE deal expires, so unless he plans to pull a Neville, an exit probably wouldn’t happen mid-month. And with reports of a change in behind-the-scenes management for the cruiserweights, Hideo might be interested in sticking around to see how that works out.
We just don’t know. And tweets like these won’t clear anything up. But they will cause fans to talk, which is probably their main goal. So...
We’ll keep you posted.