Sami Zayn and Shinsuke Nakamura had arguably the “Match of the Year” inside the WWE at NXT Takeover Dallas.
Fans all around the world were anticipating a spectacle, and both men delivered in a major way. Millions watched as Nakamura’s WWE NXT debut was everything they expected it to be, and more. It was also Zayn’s final match in NXT, which was a somber, but exciting moment.
What’s interesting is how the match came to be behind the scenes. On a recent episode of Talk Is Jericho, Sami Zayn revealed that he and Nakamura didn’t interact before their match at NXT Takeover.
“I think I met him literally once. And we’ve had very parallel careers. He started [at] the same time as me. I think I started two months before him or something. [Him] 14 years, me 14 years. He was in New Japan. I never worked New Japan, so we never worked. We’ve met maybe once. We never touched and I remember Matt Bloom, who’s head of the WWE Performance Center now was saying, ‘Hey, maybe you guys want to get in the PC and spar a little or something like that. I don’t want the first time you guys get in the ring ever, the first time you touch, to be at this big match.’ And unbeknownst to me, Nakamura said the same thing I said, ‘No, no, no. I prefer that,’ which is a dangerous thing, but it’s what I know. Yes, I prefer for the first time to be in the show, instead of a ‘Hey, lets feel it out in the ring’ [and] feel how this guy moves and stuff. So we ended up putting something together.’” – Sami Zayn
Knowing the back story to Zayn and Nakamura’s match at NXT Takeover Dallas immediately makes it more impressive.
It’s a known fact that there are wrestlers who don’t like to outline a match move by move. Clearly, neither of those men like to either and it was one of the greatest matches in NXT history.
