During a recent appearance on the Ross Report podcast, Jim Cornette spoke to Jim Ross about Shinsuke Nakamura and how he feels the Japanese wrestling sensation will fare in WWE.
At this point there’s no question as to whether or not Nakamura has the tools to succeed. Besides being a world-class in-ring talent, his charisma is electric and his appeal is undeniable. As somebody who knows talent as well as anybody, Cornette feels that Nakamura’s upside in WWE is more dependent on Vince McMahon’s preferences than Nakamura’s abilities.
“I think it comes down to he will be a superstar in NXT and people are going to love him whenever he appears with that brand,” Cornette said. “And when he gets to the main roster, I’ve got to be honest with you, I think it depends on how Vince sees him.”
He continued, “Obviously, everything [in WWE] depends on how Vince sees something, but he hasn’t had the best track record, and I’ll tell you, it’s not a racist thing with international stars, whether it be luchadores, whether it be Japanese talent, [or] whether it be anybody from Europe. Sometimes, the chairman does not understand what they have meant to their world because he’s so isolated in his and he tries, possibly, to remake them in the image that he perceives for them. That may not work.”
Cornette feels that in certain ways, Nakamura is in the same boat as WWE legends like Steve Austin and Brock Lesnar were – “essentially the more [Nakamura] is himself and he’s allowed to do his thing, the better off he’ll be.”
Visit PodcastOne.com to listen to The Ross Report and check out Jim Cornette’s weekly podcast over at MLW Radio.
H/T to William Windsor at WrestlingINC.com for the quote transcript
WWE Champion Roman Reigns, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura and NXT Women’s Champion Asuka are amongst the top names announced for this summer’s WWE live events tour of Japan.
WWE invades Tokyo’s Ryogoku Sumo Hall on July 1st and 2nd, with tickets going on sale this Saturday.
WWE Japan has confirmed the following competitors will be in action: Roman Reigns, The New Day, AJ Styles, Chris Jericho, Sheamus, Rusev, Paige, Shinsuke Nakamura, Asuka.
This will be a homecoming of sorts for Nakamura and Styles after dominating the main event scene of New Japan Pro Wrestling as recently as January.
– The following matches will take place on tonight’s episode of NXT on the WWE Network. These were taped at last weekend’s WrestleMania AXXESS event from Dallas, TX:
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Elias Samson
NXT Women’s Champion Asuka vs. Eva Marie
Carmella vs. Aliyah
Dash and Dawson vs. Local wrestlers
Hype Bros vs. Blake and Murphy
– Lat week, WWE filed for several trademarks related to Shinsuke Nakamura:
WWE submitted Trademarks for "Shinsuke Nakamura" (name/clothing) and "King of Strong Style" (name) on 4/8/16. pic.twitter.com/CKvmH4yqof
Wrestlemania 32 is in the books and it is fair to say that there were some….intriguing….booking choices made by the company, probably the most notable was Y2J picking up the win against AJ Styles, a man who as far as I can recall is the only man to have ever performed at Wrestle Kingdom and Wrestlemania in the same year and lose at both events.
More confusing is that the next night on the Raw after Mania they gave the number 1 contendership to AJ in a match where he pinned Jericho following a Styles Clash, driving home the ‘parity’ booking mentality the company seems to rely on heavily. Jericho has certainly lost more than his fair share of matches and has been more than willing to put over newer talent, even if it leads to obscurity for said talent (….Fandango), but for AJ’s first PPV event he really should’ve picked up the win.
After the win against AJ I fully expected Jericho to be placed in a program with Roman Reigns for the WWE Championship, this feud would’ve been an ideal opportunity for Reigns to learn from a grizzled vet and you can guarantee that Y2J would’ve done all he could’ve to try and stop the fans cheering him in an attempt to get Reigns over. But now that AJ has been placed in this slot for the Payback match what is there left for Jericho to do? There are 4 opponents that I would like to see him face off against from here:
Dean Ambrose – After an underwhelming match with Brock Lesnar at Mania; Ambrose also appears to be a man without a purpose, I have no doubt that an eventual Shield 3 way match for the title is on the cards when Seth Rollins is healthy, but in the meantime I see no reason why Jericho can’t have a similar program to that with CM Punk back in 2012, both are good promos and have the ability to work in a variety of stipulation matches that could re-establish Ambrose as a main event contender going forward, his reactions from the live crowds certainly warrant a prolonged push and I felt he was put in a difficult position with Lesnar as there was no way that they could live up to the Street Fights of yesteryear without the ability to bring blood into their match and that Brock Lesnar should not be losing matches, especially at Wrestlemania.
Shinsuke Nakamura – Even if they aren’t willing to bring Shinsuke up to the main roster full time just yet we’ve seen plenty of examples of NXT talent having cross-over matches, Kevin Owens benefitted greatly from having a program with John Cena while NXT Champion. The storyline could be as simple as Jericho calling Nakamura another ‘Y2J-Wannabe’ as he wrestled in Japan first, you could easily bring up Jericho’s past in the Super-J cup tournament to create a bit of legitimacy as the company appears to be more willing to acknowledge accomplishments outside of the WWE these days, you could even have Jericho perform at a Takeover show, something I’m sure the Full Sail crowd would not complain about. Really I would love to see Shinsuke on the main roster and a feud with Jericho (the gatekeeper of the WWE ‘style’) could be a great way to introduce him to the RAW audience.
Cesaro – He had built up quite a lot of momentum before his injury but a placeholder feud before going for a title could be the ideal way to re-build Cesaro. I feel that this is really the time for the WWE to decide if they are going to really take a push in Cesaro seriously and if so they need to put him up against a heel that will go above and beyond to put them over to the next level, I can definitely see a feud between them working as both Y2J and the Swiss Superman are both well travelled veterans and have experience in the European style of grappling. These two could easily have a show-stealing performance at the likes of Payback and while I don’t see this as a multiple month feud it certainly warrants getting a PPV match out of them at least.
Sami Zayn – Out of the 4 wrestlers mentioned I would say that a program with Sami Zayn is definitely more for further down the road, once he has finished the first (of hopefully) many matches with Kevin Owens I would really enjoy seeing Zayn, who is probably one of the best babyface performers in the world right now, get a feud with Jericho; who could again impart a decent amount of wisdom onto Sami and help him move from the lighter schedule of NXT to the full 300+ days a year main roster workload he will have to adapt to.
Thanks for reading, you can check out the second episode of the R & J Wrestling podcast below looking at the 2008 feud between Jericho and Shawn Michaels:
– Tuesday’s post-WrestleMania edition of Total Divas did 649,000 viewers, up significantly from last week’s season-low 563,000.
– WWE.com is running a poll asking fans which NXT call-ups made the biggest impact in their RAW debuts. Enzo Amore and Big Cass are leading the pack with 52% of the vote, followed by Apollo Crews (27%) and Baron Corbin (22%).
– Shinsuke Nakamura will be on the road for his first NXT tour this weekend, which kicks off tonight in Concord, North Carolina. They’ll be in Columbia, South Carolina tomorrow night and Charleston, South Carolina on Saturday. Other top stars advertised include NXT Champion Finn Balor, Women’s Champion Asuka and tag team champions American Alpha.
Bret Hart, WWE Hall of Famer and current host of the Sharpshooter Show Podcast, gave his opinions on Wrestlemania 32 yesterday on his show. As he has shown in the past, Hart is not afraid to tell people what he really thinks. Here are some of the more interesting highlights:
Disappointed with WrestleMania booking. Says “logic didn’t prevail” and the booking “wasn’t up to snuff”
Says he was the man who brought ladder matches to the WWE and can’t believe what a “piece of shit match” it’s turned into
Disappointed in the IC Title ladder match. “A lot of bullshit, a lot of wasted moves, too much laying around”. Calls it a prop match. “Stupid spots that make no sense”. Still calls the match the best match on the card
Says he’d line all the bookers up against the wall and shoot them
“Real wrestling is almost dead. CM Punk, Daniel Bryan and Bret Hart, that kind of wrestling is almost dead”
Says he hates the Styles Clash. “Looks like you just gently brush someone’s stomach on the ground”. However, he calls it the Calf Crusher (got the two moves confused)
Really likes Barrett. Says he’s done the best with the lame gimmicks he’s been given. Thinks Japan may be “his cup of tea”. Compares Barrett to Drew Mcintyre. Both really good talents that were never used correctly
Nakamura vs Zayn was the best match of the whole WrestleMania weekend. Asuka vs Bayley was better than any match on the WrestleMania card
NXT is bringing “real wrestling” to the surface. RAW and WM is “a bunch of morons that sit around creating wrestling. Just writers from Hollywood who don’t know anything about the business. Just Vince Russo’s in a different uniform”
Everything about Nakamura vs Zayn (from entrances to handshake) was “beautiful wrestling”. Made Bret stand and salute. Said the finish to Asuka vs Bayley was also beautiful
Thought Sasha Banks should have won the title. It was her night and it was another bad booking decision
Regarding The Rock’s segment: “For me it was just another example of dweebs sitting around a table writing wrestling”. Called the whole segment “overly scripted bullshit”
To get every episode as it is released, subscribe to Wrestlezone Radio on iTunes, Soundcloud or Stitcher.
A few minutes ago, Wrestling Twitter exploded upon seeing that the above video of Shinsuke Nakamura practicing his entrance inside the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center had been uploaded to YouTube. Surreptitiously shot from behind a railing, it catches the vast majority Nakamura’s entrance, including his new entrance music. Uploaded by “Scott Nebenzahl,” the video has a description that simply reads “Don’t ask how I got this ?.” No public videos had been uploaded to the account in five years before today and there’s no indication who shot it. In case YouTube gets the original upload pulled from YouTube, there are mirrors on Streamable, Vid.me, and SendVid.
Nakamura makes his WWE debut tonight at NXT TakeOver: Dallas against Sami Zayn, who will be done with NXT after tonight. Stay right here at SEScoops for live coverage of the whole card, which airs live on WWE Network from the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center.
It looks like Shinsuke Nakamura will just be known as Nakamura to the WWE/NXT universe. The King Of Strong Style is listed by his last name only in the Wrestlemania 32 program being sold at the WWE Superstore and considering Chad Gable, Jason Jordan and Apollo Crews are on the same page with their full names — it seems like the name drop will happen.
It’s interesting to note that Nakamura is listed with NXT talent in the program, leading many to think he will spend more time than most believed on NXT programming. There is not much known about Nakamura’s direction with NXT/WWE, but this could be a good indication. Or it simply could just be they have him in the NXT section because he is debuting with NXT.
Nakamura is set to debut at NXT TakeOver: Dallas in a match against Sami Zayn . It has been one of the most talked about and highly anticipated matches on both NXT and WWE’s weekend events. The event is live on the WWE Network, Friday April 1.
AJ Styles spoke with Nick Schwartz of Fox Sports this week promote WrestleMania. Many fans have wondered why Styles is not using Styles Clash as his finisher in WWE. There’s been speculation that the move was formally banned for being too dangerous, but AJ sets the record straight:
“I think that a lot of people think the Styles Clash is banned, you can’t do that anymore,” he said. “It’s not necessarily that, there’s some guys that are just too big to get that in. The roster of the WWE is a big roster, so you have to improvise – but part of being an entertainer is that you’ve got to be able to adapt to every situation and be able to hit stuff on guys or are bigger than you or smaller than you. For me, it’s not that big of a deal.”
This Friday night at NXT Takeover: Dallas, Shinsuke Nakamura makes his NXT debut against Sami Zayn. Styles worked with Nakamura in New Japan Pro Wrestling, with the two of them putting on a Match of the Year contender back at WrestleKingdom on January 4th. Styles says Nakamura is going to make a huge impact when he arrives and people should not underestimate him because of his flashy persona.
“Shinsuke Nakamura is probably one of the best wrestlers I’ve ever been in the ring with. He’s very unorthodox. Everything he does is with knockout power. He’s a guy who is very flamboyant so don’t let his Michael Jackson antics fool you, this guy is deadly. He will knock you out. [He’s a] great athlete, can’t say enough great things about him. I know personally how good he is.”
As for his top goal in WWE, AJ said of course he wants to main event WrestleMania one day, but the thing he wants most is respect from his peers.
AJ Styles makes his WrestleMania debut this Sunday against Chris Jericho.
– Alberto Del Rio is back on the road with and will be at Monday’s RAW from Brooklyn, NY. He was at last week’s RAW, but missed SmackDown and did not appear at this weekend’s live events.
– Nikki Bella is rumored to be appearing on Monday’s RAW from Brooklyn, NY. She revealed on Instagram yesterday that she no longer has to wear her neck brace full time. Based on recovery, she expects to be ‘the strongest she’s ever been’ this summer.
Brie, who is expected to finish up with the company after WrestleMania, will also be returning for the final build to WrestleMania. Brie was off WWE TV this past week, reportedly due to a health issue with husband Daniel Bryan.
– On Sunday Shinsuke Nakamura arrived in Orlando, Florida for his permanent move to the city. The former NJPW star will be training at the WWE Performance Center and debuts for NXT this coming Friday at NXT Takeover: Dallas.
– WWE created a pretty surreal video of what the WCW Nitro opening video would have looked like if WWE had lost the Monday Night War and WCW acquired WWE’s talent.
– Japanese wrestling sensation Shinsuke Nakamura will have new theme music when he debuts for NXT in less than one week at Takeover: Dallas. According to Yahoo! Japan, Nakamura is very happy with his WWE entrance theme.
“It was like a light bulb appearing,” he said. “It suits me perfectly.”
– Even though he won’t be returning to the ring any time soon, John Cena continues to tease that he will be appearing at WrestleMania 32 next weekend in some capacity.
– On Wednesday, Chris Jericho called out Shinsuke Nakamura on Twitter, telling the Japanese star that he’s nothing in Jericho’s world. It’s now being speculated that Jericho is going after him to build towards a match that will take place this summer when WWE holds two showsfrom Tokyo’s Sumo Hall (July 1st & 2nd).
Shinsuke Nakamura makes his NXT debut against Sami Zayn next Friday night at NXT Takeover: Dallas.
– WWE has announced that next week’s episode of NXT will feature Samoa Joe vs. Bull Dempsey and Alex Riley vs. Apollo Crews. This is the “go-home” show before Takeover: Dallas.
– Finn Balor has renamed his Bloody Sunday finisher. It will be now known as 1916.
'1916' Named after the Irish Rising On Easter Sunday 1916. 100 years ago this week pic.twitter.com/t7oLdrUbAq
– For some unknown reason, WWE just re-uploaded a 15-second clip of Vince McMahon explaining what’s missing from Cesaro’s act and why he hasn’t gotten over to the degree that may have hoped.
Cesaro has been out since undergoing shoulder surgery back in November and is scheduled to return to action during next month’s ‘WrestleMania Revenge’ European tour.
– Zeb Colter is taking credit for being the creator of “Wrestlers Court” – a tradition in the business where wrestlers who break protocol are put ‘on trial’ by their peers.
FOR THE UNINFORMED: YES I WAS THE CREATOR OF "WRESTLERS COURT" MADE FAMOUS BY THE UNDERTAKER & @JCLayfield IN @WWE@steveaustinBSR
– Chris Jericho took an unprovoked shot at Shinsuke Nakamura on Wednesday afternoon. After Nakamura tweeted a link to a Jushin Liger mask that is available for sale on a Japanese shopping website, Jericho told Nakamura that he means nothing in Jericho’s world.
Shinsuke Nakamura makes his NXT debut next Friday night against Sami Zayn at NXT Takeover: Dallas.
– Tonight after RAW, the WWE Network will air a special Wrestlemania-themed episode of the Edge and Christian Show.
– The Rock noted on Twitter that he did a cover shoot GQ magazine this weekend.
– Sheamus will be appearing on Conan on TBS this Friday to promote Wrestlemania.
– Dave Otunga will be appearing on the Steve Harvey Show this Wednesday for a segment about diet and nutrition.
– Friend of the site Jake Jeremy and his friend Roderick have launched a new wrestling podcast titled, the R&J Wrestling Podcast. You can check out Episode 1 below.
– Shinsuke Nakamura is featured in the latest NXT program, on sale at NXT live events. Nakamura makes his debut against Sami Zayn next weekend at NXT Takeover: Dallas.
Former NJPW star Shinsuke Nakamura will make his NXT debut at Takeover: Dallas against Sami Zayn. On this week’s episode of NXT, Zayn was talking about losing to Samoa Joe the previous week and failing to become #1 contender to Finn Balor’s NXT Championship. General Manager William Regal interrupted Zayn and announced that Zayn’s Takeover opponent has been determined.
A pre-taped video played showing Shinsuke Nakamura, who issued the challenge. The crowd knew exactly who Nakamura was and his arrival in WWE has been anticipated since the first week of 2016.
It was also announced that Bayley will put the NXT Women’s championship on the line against Asuka.
With those matches set, here’s the updated card for NXT Takeover Dallas, which takes place on Friday night, April 1st from Dallas, Texas at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. The show airs live on the WWE Network.
NXT Champion Finn Bálor vs. Samoa Joe
Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
NXT Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Asuka
NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival vs. American Alpha
Now that Shinsuke Nakamura is officially signed to WWE, more details are coming in regarding him joining the company and what’s ahead for the Japanese wrestling phenom.
Nakamura will be wrestling his first match for WWE against Sami Zayn at NXT Takeover: Dallas on Friday, April 1st. The belief is that Nakamura will be spending significant time in NXT, which is interesting because he’ll be earning “main roster” money.
His signing with WWE and the press conference WWE held in Japan on Monday was treated like a major sports story in Japan. The media event at Tokyo’s Hard Rock Cafe had more than 100 reporters, photographers and videographers in attendance.
It has been widely reported in the Japanese media that Nakamura’s WWE contract is for 3 years, so it will be interesting to see how much time he spends in NXT before he makes it to the main roster.
Newly signed NXT star Shinsuke Nakamura reportedly wants to face off against Brock Lesnar once again, this time in WWE. The two previously met in the ring at NJPW’s Tokyo Dome show on January 4th, 2006.
Bilingual Twitter user Enuhito recently shared some quotes from Shinsuke Nakamura upon making his arrival at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Nakamura walked in to see some wrestlers watching his match Lesnar.
When Nakamura went to WWE Performance Center, some wrestlers were watching Nakamura vs Lesnar match in 2006.
– #CancelWWENetwork was trending worldwide on Sunday night after WWE Fastlane. Fans were not at all happy with Roman Reigns winning in the main event and earning a WWE title shot against Triple H at WrestleMania. It’s also worth noting that a lot of people were reporting technical difficulties during the show, including choppiness and the signal dropping out.
– Kevin Owens is teasing an Intercontinental championship feud with AJ Styles. A match between these two would certainly be a nice addition to the WrestleMania 32 card.
WWE.com has officially announced the signing of Japanese Wrestling legend Shinsuke Nakamura. An article at WWE.com states that he’s signed with “WWE NXT,” so it looks like his match at TakeOver is not a one-time thing. That’s not surprising, since he was expected to acclimate himself in NXT for a while, but since WWE likely had to sign him to a lucrative deal to get him to jump from NJPW, it was expected that he was earmarked for the main roster. Maybe he still is, but they’re pushing him as an NXT signing for now.
Paul “Triple H” Levesque told WWE.com that “Talent is the lifeblood of our company, and the signing of Shinsuke Nakamura further demonstrates NXT’s commitment to bringing in the best talent from all over the world. His explosive style will make an immediate impact to an already dynamic NXT men’s division.” I’m sure we’ll hear more from WWE about him in the coming weeks.
AJ Styles recently spoke with our friend Ryan Carse of The Tag Rope, a quarterly pro wrestling magazine. The Phenominal One spoke about a wide range of topics, including his time wrestling in Japan, early memories of breaking onto the independent circuit, thoughts on Shinsuke Nakamura and much more. Here are some highlights of what he said about:
Returning to the independent circuit after leaving TNA:
“I tell you what’s liberating, is the fact that you were able to bet on yourself, and it paid off. A lot of people wouldn’t do that, there’s a lot of chance you’re taking when you do something like that but it’s very liberating to feel like, ‘Okay, I did that, and I did it all on my own, and I created a new AJ Styles and separated myself from something that people only knew me as TNA AJ Styles’. Now they knew me as Bullet Club AJ Styles, which is hard to do and I was very happy that I was able to do that.”
The most important thing he learned in Japan:
“Just because people weren’t making a lot of noise doesn’t mean they weren’t paying attention. The Japan crowds are very different from the UK and American crowds; they’re really paying attention, watching and loving professional wrestling for what it is. The pure sport that it is. You gotta love that. There’s a lot of respect in Japan and you don’t realise it and first, but then you just really love it once you get to know what’s going on.”
Which Japanese wrestler he learned the most from:
“Wrestling [Hiroshi] Tanahashi, I really feel like that I learned just because I don’t see what’s going on, doesn’t mean he doesn’t. Sometimes, I don’t feel the crowd or I don’t see them so I can’t see the reactions because I’m in a hold or he’s in a hold. But there was a time when I had him in a Calf Killer for what seemed like, ‘Oh man, this is too long’, but he saw something I didn’t, and literally we had people crying in the front row.
Shinsuke Nakamura:
“First of all, Shinsuke’s awesome. He’s his own wrestler, there’s nobody like him, he’s very unorthodox but he’s his own man. You won’t see another wrestler and go, ‘Shinsuke copied him’, that’s not it. If anything, you could say he does a little Michael Jackson stuff, which makes him so different from everybody else, he’s flamboyant; this guy has all the tricks of the trade. At the same time, he will kick your head off.”
As noted earlier this week, Shinsuke Nakamura has arrived in in the United States and will be training at the WWE Performance Center over the next two months ahead of his NXT debut at Takeover: Dallas. A few more quick notes about Nakamura in WWE:
– Tokyo Sports reports that Nakamura signed a 3-year deal with WWE, which would keep him under contract through 2019.
– There has been some speculation regarding whether or not he will be using the same theme song he used in NJPW, “Subconscious.” Despite reports that WWE had purchased the rights to the song, Dave Meltzer stated in the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Nakamura will be getting new theme using and will not be using Subconscious.
– Speaking of Nakamura, WWE Hall of Famer Jim Ross tweeted this photo of himself with the Japanese superstar, probably taken at last year’s Wrestle Kingdom 9 PPV.
Jim Ross has posted his latest blog entry at JRsBarBQ.com covering some of the biggest stories in the pro wrestling world. As always, he gives his thoughts from his unique perspective as a wrestling announcer and executive with decades of experience. Here are some of the more notable comments from Ross this time out:
On Shinsuke Nakamura and discussions of whether or not WWE will change his name:
I have no issues with WWE changing Shinsuke Nakamura’s ring name if they choose. WWE should own the talent’s names and/or have the legal rights to protect their intellectual property in the show biz world of pro wrestling. It’s sound business and won’t adversely affect how Nakamura gets over with the fans. In the eyes of many, mine too, Nakamura is one of the most gifted talents in the world and brings as much natural charisma to his presentation as any one in the business today.
On Awesome Kong being sent home from TNA’s UK tour due to an incident with Reby Sky:
Sorry to see one of my favorite female grapplers, Awesome Kong, involved in controversy in the UK that saw TNA send Kong home from the tour there. I don’t know the complete story but It’s regrettable nonetheless. Kong has the ability to help any company IMO. Let’s hope that this matter is addressed and all parties can move positively forward. One has to ask if TNA knew that there were lingering issues between the two ladies in question here why didn’t they address such and attempt to clear the air if they didn’t?
On the fans dressed up as past stars at Raw:
Don’t understand why WWE is allegedly not pleased that some fans dressed up as WWE stars no a recent RAW which saw @TheRock interact with them. I thought it was entertaining.
And of course, he extends some well-wishes to Bret Hart:
Best wishes to @BretHart on his upcoming battle with Prostate Cancer. I’d lay my money on The Hitman to kick Cancer’s ass.
The full blog post includes thoughts on Braun Strowman, some vague notes on a meeting Ross has this weekend, NXT vs. Raw, and more.
Shinsuke Nakamura has arrived in the United States. The former NJPW star landed in New York City at JFK airport on Tuesday night and met with former WWE star Sho Funaki.
According to PWInsider.com, Nakamura will head to the WWE Performance Center for two weeks, then will fly back to Japan. He’ll return to the U.S. before WrestleMania weekend to wrestle Sami Zayn at NXT Takeover: Dallas. Nakamura will begin working out in WWE rings at the Performance Center in Orlando before the end of this week.
NXT Takeover: Dallas takes place on Friday, April 1st during WrestleMania weekend in Dallas, Texas.
Note: All translations in this article are from E. Key Oide on Twitter. A must-follow for English-speaking NJPW fans.
While officially just part of the Road to New Beginning tour, tonight’s (Japan time) New Japan Pro Wrestling card at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo took on significance as Shinsuke Nakamura’s final match in the company before starting with WWE. While the card easily could have done big business, there was no time to schedule anything too big or fancy with Nakamura giving notice on January 4th and being done with his obligations on February 1st. So they just packed the ~2,000 seat combat sports mecca in the Tokyo Dome City complex instead.
In the main event, Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, and Tomohiro Ishii (representing CHAOS) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, and Katsuyori Shibata (representing the NJPW Regular Army) when Ishii pinned Shibata after a vertical drop brainbuster. After the match, Kenny Omega came out to cut a promo on Nakamura, calling him a coward for leaving and vacating the IWGP Intercontinental Championship instead of giving him a title shot. Tanahashi then interrupted Omega (who was slated to face “X,” as NJPW refers to mystery opponents), saying “Listen. I’ll explain it to you. It might be sad, but this is Nakamura’s last match today. I’m the only one who can face [you]for the [Intercontinental title]! I. AM. X.”
From there, Nakamura, in tears, was left alone in the ring with the microphone (again, make sure to follow E. Key Oide on Twitter for great translations like these):
Should I say something? Hmm, what should I do? New Japan! To all the wrestlers, my comrades who I’ve faced, and to the fans: Thank you. I’ll show an unsuspecting world the Nakamura that was born and raised here! Until I can come back stronger, I won’t say goodbye. Just…thank you.
That’s all…
PSYCH!
You all know what I wanna say!
The answer, the only answer…is YEAOH!
[Nakamura is joined in the ring by the rest of CHAOS]
The greatest…the greatest sport in the world is PRO WRESTLING!
Later, at the press conference, Nakamura made some additional comments, which E. Key Oide compiled into this image post on Twitter:
David Finlay Jr. defeated Hirai Kawato in 4:38 with the Boston Crab.
YOSHI-HASHI defeated Jay White in 6:20 with a power bomb into a jackknife cradle.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, & Juhsin Thunder Liger defeated Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, & Tiger Mask IV in 10:34 when Kojima pinned Nakanishi after a lariat.
Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi of The Bullet Club defeated Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba when Fale pinned Yano after hitting The Grenade in 6:55..
Tetsuya Naito, EVIL & BUSHI of Los Ingobernables defeated KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi & Captain New Japan in 8:57 after EVIL hit his EVIL finisher on Captain New Japan. BUSHI and KUSHIDA got into a skirmish afterwards to push their match for KUSHIDA’s IWGP Junior Heayyweight Championship on Valentine’s Day.
Kenny Omega, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, & Cody Hall of The Bullet Club defeated Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Michael Elgin, & Juice Robinson when Omega pinned Robinson after a running knee in 11:43.
Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata in 21:48 when Ishii pinned Shibata after a vertical drop brainbuster.
