on january 27, 2014, kenta, with noah's blessing, entered wwe's performance center in orlando, florida for a tryout. in a press release, kenta claimed that he was not after a wwe contract, but only wanted to fulfill a dream and take part in a wwe workout. on june 27, tokyo sports reported that kenta had signed with wwe. his signing was officially announced during an in-ring segment on july 12 in osaka. kobayashi relocated to orlando to resume training at the performance center, while also working for wwe's developmental territory nxt.