Hiromu Takahashi’s WWE in-ring debut is officially in the books. After weeks of buildup on this show, Takahashi wrestled his first match on WWE television this week on SmackDown under the name “Kyoki,” teaming with Shinsuke Nakamura to beat Kit Wilson and The Miz. Dave Simon watched it in a New Japan Pro-Wrestling “Time Bomb” Hiromu Takahashi shirt, which tells you everything about how long this one had been circled on the calendar.
🎯 Key Takeaways
- Hiromu Takahashi’s WWE in-ring debut happened on SmackDown, teaming with Shinsuke Nakamura to defeat Kit Wilson and The Miz.
- The new tag team goes by Bakusai, a name that roughly translates to blasting into pieces, which tracks with Takahashi’s New Japan nickname, Ticking Time Bomb.
- Takahashi’s dive to the outside didn’t land as cleanly as it should have, a recurring issue for anyone diving toward The Miz specifically.
- The pairing with Nakamura is an odd-couple match made in heaven, two of the strangest, most unpredictable characters in the company sharing a tag team.
Table of Contents
The Debut That’s Been a Long Time Coming
Last week, this show covered the news that Hiromu Takahashi had quietly won a dark match against Kit Wilson ahead of his official arrival. This week, it became real. Takahashi teamed with Shinsuke Nakamura, and the pair beat Kit Wilson and The Miz in a straightforward tag match that mattered a lot more for what it represented than for how the match itself was worked.
Takahashi is one of the most decorated junior heavyweights New Japan Pro-Wrestling has ever produced, and getting him onto WWE television, even in a midcard tag spot, is a real get. The chemistry with Nakamura made sense immediately. Both are strange, both are magnetic, and both have a habit of making a broadcast feel a little more unpredictable the second they show up.
Meet Bakusai
The tag team is going by Bakusai, a Japanese word that roughly translates to “blasting into pieces” or “bombing into bits,” depending on how it is written. It is a clean fit with Takahashi’s long-running New Japan nickname, Ticking Time Bomb, and a rare case of WWE giving an incoming Japanese star a name that actually connects to his existing persona rather than overwriting it.
WWE’s history with incoming Japanese and international talent naming conventions has been shaky, so a name this coherent is worth noting on its own. Whether the character work around it holds up over time is a different question, but the starting point is a good one.
The Dive Was Cool. The Catch Was Not.
Takahashi took his signature dive to the outside during the match, and it was genuinely cool to see on WWE television for the first time. What was not cool was the catch, or lack of one. He landed hard, mostly on his own, which has become something of a pattern whenever The Miz is on the receiving end of a dive. It is not a new complaint about The Miz specifically, but it is one worth repeating every time it happens, because it keeps happening.
None of that takes away from the larger point. Takahashi looked like himself in his first WWE outing, the crowd popped for the dive regardless of the landing, and a rocky catch on night one is a minor footnote next to the fact that one of the best junior heavyweights of his generation is now a semi-regular presence on SmackDown.
What’s Next for Bakusai
SmackDown’s undercard has gotten noticeably deeper with Takahashi and Nakamura teaming up, and there is no shortage of options for them going forward, whether that is a tag title program or singles opportunities for Takahashi as he settles in. The bigger story for now is simply that the debut happened, it delivered on the character front, and the in-ring chemistry between the two is exactly as strange and entertaining as advertised.
Hiromu Takahashi WWE Debut Frequently Asked Questions
Who did Hiromu Takahashi team with for his WWE debut?
Hiromu Takahashi teamed with Shinsuke Nakamura, defeating Kit Wilson and The Miz in his official WWE in-ring debut on SmackDown.
What is Hiromu Takahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura’s WWE tag team name?
The team is going by Bakusai, a Japanese word that translates to “blasting into pieces” or “bombing into bits,” tying into Takahashi’s New Japan nickname, Ticking Time Bomb.
Did Hiromu Takahashi wrestle in WWE before his SmackDown debut?
Yes. He won a dark match against Kit Wilson ahead of his official on-air arrival, which was first reported the week before his SmackDown debut.
