I dont think he was much happier in NJ being leapfrogged by Naito (and lol that it took 4 years to actually capitalize on that), always behind Okada and Tana, and likely Shibata would have been jump above him as well.
He was ic level for the rest of his life in new Japan and well
While this is true, at least he gets treated like one of the GOATS, instead of a circling turd. Reminds me of PRIDE FC when they had jobber ass fighters getting treated like gods due to the overall presentation. That's something that sadly doesn't happen in professional wrestling. You got a roster of elites and some midcarders, at least make them midcarders feel like they mean something to the overall show. Bottom line, Naka thought the grass was greener (his terms, wrestling a lighter style, surfs up brehs, and etc), but turns to find out the hard way of how WWE treats their eastern friends
. The only Japanese wrestler that didn't get shytted on was Ulitmo Dragon because he was a fukking moron with gloating about taking WWE's belt and flaunting it with the rest.
His stupidity became his saving grace with that shytty ass company