Shinsuke Nakamura On The WWE Main Roster: Promise Or Peril?

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When Shinsuke Nakamura came to NXT last year, he was already well-known to anyone who followed wrestling beyond WWE. Even if you hadn’t seen any of his matches, you’d probably heard his name somewhere, especially in articles that mentioned New Japan Pro-Wrestling. As a result, Nakamura was one of the most highly-anticipated NXT debuts ever.

Last week, when he debuted on Smackdown, the crowd blew the roof off the place, cheering like maniacs. And for good reason. While Nakamura’s matches in NXT usually didn’t come near approaching those he’d had in Japan, he was arguably the best in-ring performer of the brand during his tenure, which lasted a touch more than a year.

When he made his debut, at NXT TakeOver: Dallas during Wrestlemania weekend last year against Sami Zayn, the crowd was on fire. There was no storyline, nobody played the heel. It was just two men who are highly respected for their in-ring work facing off against each other. The level of anticipation was so high that there were “this is awesome” chants before the two guys had even finished their entrances.

Nakamura and Zayn
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Giant Bomb

And it really was a great match. American audiences got to see what this “strong style” thing was all about, and were introduced to the graceful, improvised dance of a ring entrance that lent so much wonderful theatricality to Nakamura’s character. Nakamura glides to the ring, dances, takes a big bow and plays to the crowd. But once the match starts, his strikes hit the flesh with a kind of brutality we’re not used to seeing in WWE. In the Zayn match, Sami’s kicks looked light, filled with air, in comparison. Later, though, as if adjusting to Nakamura’s style, his strikes seemed to land with more impact. At one point, they traded elbows in the middle of the ring, something that was a signature of Nakamura matches in Japan. Very good stuff, though perhaps it might have set people’s expectations a bit too high.

At NXT TakeOver: The End on June 8th, Nakamura faced Austin Aries in another much anticipated contest. Nakamura started the match by beating the living shit out of Aries. Plenty of wrestling holds and submission moves followed. At one point Aries dropped Nakamura on his head when they were standing outside the ring on the apron, and it looked freakin’ brutal. It was an intense, hard-fought match. Definitely not as good as the Zayn match, but little in WWE is.

After that, Nakamura chased Samoa Joe for the NXT title. At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II on August 20th, they faced off for the first time. Joe, the NXT champion, was supposed to be a huge unbeatable heel who dominated his opponents, which is never a great sign that we’re going to get a good match. Nakamura matches work best when he is on equal footing with his opponent. If he does play the underdog, it should happen because of heel tactics during the match. He should not play a helpless victim. He’s much too tough. Nobody with any sense is going to buy that.

Shinsuke Nakamura and Samoa Joe
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WWE

Also, both Joe and Nakamura are trained in MMA. Nakamura even competed professionally from 2002 through 2004. Most people know that he’s legitimately tough. Having Joe dominate Nakamura for most of the match did make for an exciting finish, where Nakamura finally picked up the win, but the same result could have been achieved in a match where both men had a back-and-forth MMA-style fight. And, actually, that’s what we got in their rematch, which was a lot better. Both guys traded advantages, with Nakamura getting ahead on strikes. And it was a much better showing as a result.

Eventually Joe beat the hell out of Nakamura and got the win with a muscle buster. Pretty damn good match, of course. Great? Maybe for WWE, but it didn’t come close to Nakamura’s match with Zayn or his work in Japan. This is why I’m pretty skeptical about Nakamura’s main roster debut. WWE isn’t incredibly keen on putting over people based on in-ring ability. As if to prove my point, while I was re-watching the third Nakamura and Joe match on the WWE Network, which was arguably the best of the series, a goddamn Total Divas commercial aired in the middle of the thing, ruining the flow. There’s no need for this when you’re not beholden to a TV network or sponsors. Put your damn commercials before or after the match.

Nakamura’s feud with Bobby Roode, his last in NXT, was pretty great, if only because Roode is perhaps the only person in NXT who can match Nakamura’s charisma. At NXT TakeOver: San Antonio on January 28th of this year, they had their first match. They traded advantages throughout, mostly through brawling and striking. Nakamura and Roode both completely destroyed one another at various points. A kind of cheesy knee injury angle near the end of the match felt a little silly. It was supposed to make Nakamura look brave while simultaneously making him the underdog in an otherwise equally-matched contest. But it didn’t work. I think this is the right direction to go, but the injury was just too over-the-top to be believable. Roode won the match, of course, capturing the NXT title.

Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode
Image Source:
WWE

They made up for the silly ending with their NXT TakeOver: Orlando match that took place over Wrestlemania weekend. They got a nice thirty minutes to do their thing. After a fast paced early feeling out phase, the match got aggressive as hell. Toward the end, Roode had enough and tried to get himself disqualified by grabbing the ring bell and bringing it into the ring in full view of the referee. A Glorious DDT finally got Roode the victory, and a well-earned one at that. Great selling on Roode’s part at the end when he was handed the championship belt and looked surprised that he won.

If WWE can keep up the pace of Nakamura’s NXT run, which was very good, though not great, I will be happy indeed. But I’m under no illusions that Nakamura will reach some sort of creative peak here.

I’m really hoping for Nakamura’s main roster run to be decent. But I just don’t trust WWE creative at this point. When will he get some sort of silly gimmick or go on an anti-American heel run, like just about every other Japanese character in WWE and WWF history? Hopefully never, but who the hell knows. A lot of NXT call ups have gone belly-up, but as good as those wrestlers were, they were no Nakamura. I think he’ll be in WWE a year, maybe two, depending on his contract, and then head back to New Japan for a hero’s welcome.

I’m crossing my fingers for one, maybe two, great Wrestlemania matches. It would be such a shame to waste such a great in-ring talent like Nakamura. At its worst, which is often, professional wrestling is such a goofy spectacle. But at its best, it can become a strange kind of art form, a violent dance. Nakamura is one of professional wrestling’s best artists. Let’s hope he’s given a fair chance to perform at his peak.

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