I did a similar post about Umino a couple days ago and had this one ready for Narita as well.
Ren Narita was my favourite of the Reiwa batch of Young Lions. However since then, he has become the clear runt of the litter. Due to Narita doing his excursion on STRONG, for regular viewers it never felt like he fully left. Moreover, he came back with a straight shooter, black tights, black boots look which made it seem like he had little character development/likened him to a Shibata clone. He instantly went to the finals for the inaugural TV champion. After losing that he formed a short lived team with Suzuki and Desperado winning the 6 man titles but the reign was underwhelming. Thereafter, he spent 2023 in the shadow of his contemporaries this, NJPW spiced up his character by making him the defacto heel of the bunch.
Things have improved with him in HOT; he has a clear space on the roster, his match structure improved, he gained a personality and became the first to win a singles title by becoming TV champion. He had a great showing vs Sabre Jr for the Heavyweight championship, Zack is definitely a great matchup for him, I also liked their NJC match in 2024. However, his potential seems limited for now and still hasn't pushed that far up in the pecking order. By now he should have been seen as the number 1 guy in HOT. EVIL can still be leader but Narita should be the one challenging for titles and going further in tournaments.
Now if they wanted to have him booked stronger with the Son of Strong Style gimmick, instead of going to the TV tournament finals and losing he could have returned as Strong champion. They could have presented it as a young lion goes to America to learn and develop but then he returned a conquering champion. He then could have defended the belt for a couple months cementing his place with a handful of singles matches.
Nonetheless, Narita has improved in HOT but they just need to push him as the top guy, doesn't need to be the face. He just needs to be consistently competing for and winning championships whilst EVIL has the more story driven feuds
by shecanbromehard