As it turns out, Hideo Itami was not the first choice to be the NXT representative in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the WrestleMania 31 Kickoff Show this past Sunday.
According to PWInsider.com, having Itami in the match was a late decision made by the company, as Finn Balor or Adrian Neville were originally considered for the spot. Once the decision was made to bump the battle royal from the pay-per-view to the pre-show, the decision was made to go with Itami instead.
Another reason Itami got the spot was due to the strong Japanese media presence at the show for Tatsumi Fujinami’s WWE Hall Of Fame induction.
