Kaval (Brandon Silvestry, 31) was released from his contract on 12/23. He was never really a good fit here because he had too much of a Japanese style, and while he was able to get over with the public, he couldn’t get over with the people in charge. Guys who have had success elsewhere always have a difficult time here because of the perception than any success elsewhere doesn’t count, and at times, is actually held against you. In his case, you combine that with his size, and it’s a double whammy. He was originally signed at the end of 2008 while he was IWGP jr. champion in Japan. The idea was to use him as a masked wrestler to feud with Mysterio. While getting ready for a call-up, he blew out his knee and was out for nine months after surgery. By that time, people forgot about that program and he was left in developmental. He was then brought up for NXT season two to be in the Bryan Danielson role, the guy for Michael Cole (basically the office voice due to frustration with what they perceive as Internet fans) rips on for being too small and having no charisma (even though he had more charisma than anyone else that season). They kept beating him on the show and he kept being voted on as the top guy by the fans, won the show, and was immediately jobbed out. I really have no idea why the company does fan voting on those shows because it leads to things making no sense. They job a guy out for three straight months but they’ve taught fans winning and losing doesn’t count, so they still vote the guy in. Then they jobbed him some more, and in a sense, wasted a tag of winning the season that could have helped someone they had plans for, and instead just made them look vindictive for having a guy the fans chose and then having the doctrine he’s being jobbed out because he wasn’t who they wanted. Creative was told to job him, which they did, until the decision was made, because of the NXT deal where he was supposed to get a shot, to build him up for one shot on PPV with Ziggler. Since then, creative was told to continue to job him and he got frustrated and wanted out. After he lost to McIntyre on the 12/21 live Smackdown, the story we got is that he asked if he had any heat and was told he didn’t. Then he asked if there were any future plans for him, and he was told that they had no ideas or plans with him, so he asked for his release and they agreed to it. It’s going to be difficult for him because of how the landscape of wrestling has changed in the past two years. There isn’t the money in working indies as there was, nor is there the money working Japan that there was, even a couple of years ago. He should get a decent amount of bookings coming off WWE television. Things weren’t smooth sailing in TNA, but the guy is very talented. New Japan liked him but they have Davey Richards in his position as the great working foreign junior heavyweight. NOAH has financial issues right now. As Low Ki, he has signed for a match on 3/5 in Ronkonkoma, NY, against Davey Richards.
