3. Kevin Owens
Kevin Owens who was the current NXT Champion at the time had never crossed paths with Hideo Itami until after Itami had been attacked and injured.
If Itami had won the triple threat match and become the new number one contender, there’s no doubt that Itami wouldn’t have challenged Owens to a title match at the Beast in The East Special in Japan, where the deck would be ultimately stacked against Owens defending his title against Itami in Hideo’s home country.
Kevin Owens being revealed as the attacker would have worked, and at the time may have even been the plan, especially with Owens making the comment “That’s a shame” when Hideo was found injured in the parking lot. However it’s way too late now for Owens to be revealed as Hideo’s attacker, since Owens has been on the main roster for a year it wouldn’t work nor would it make sense for Owens to head back down to NXT to finish off the storyline and there’s no way that Hideo would be called up to the Main roster just to finish off the story.