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Okada to leave NJPW


Daddymagic

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5 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Considering WWE's terrible history with Japanese wrestlers (male ones, especially), him going there would be ill-advised for both sides, surely.

It's definitely a risk. Although you could argue that Nakamura's presentation now is probably the best he has been in WWE since his first match with Sami Zayn, so perhaps the new regime would do better with Okada. Personally I think it'd be a struggle and I'm not sure he's the kind of guy to appeal to a casual WWE audience really.

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1 hour ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Considering WWE's terrible history with Japanese wrestlers (male ones, especially), him going there would be ill-advised for both sides, surely.

Admittedly it's a very low bar but they have got better. Nakamura won the Royal Rumble, got a title shot at Mania and was IC champ. He's currently the most interesting he has ever been and was massively over (well, his entrance was) when he was first called up.

I'd love to see Okada in WWE just from an intrigue perspective if nothing else 

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2 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Admittedly it's a very low bar but they have got better. Nakamura won the Royal Rumble, got a title shot at Mania and was IC champ. He's currently the most interesting he has ever been and was massively over (well, his entrance was) when he was first called up.

This is true, but it skips a few years there.

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2 minutes ago, Duke said:

This is true, but it skips a few years there.

Yeah I'm sure one of the best wrestlers in the world right now is dying to sign to a company so he can take 7 years to get over.

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1 hour ago, FelatioLips said:

Yeah I'm sure one of the best wrestlers in the world right now is dying to sign to a company so he can take 7 years to get over.

Shinsuke got over almost straight away in NXT. Again, it was mainly due to his entrance but go watch his main roster debut. MF'er was over. It was only as he was there longer than he got less over. 

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48 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Shinsuke got over almost straight away in NXT. Again, it was mainly due to his entrance but go watch his main roster debut. MF'er was over. It was only as he was there longer than he got less over. 

Well, I just went and found that on Youtube. Genuinely no recollection of that whatsoever. Obviously it was a great choice of crowd to do it in front of, but yeah damn they never quite capitalised on that did they?

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1 hour ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Shinsuke got over almost straight away in NXT. Again, it was mainly due to his entrance but go watch his main roster debut. MF'er was over.

It helps that his debut match was as close to perfect as you get.

On 11/14/2023 at 10:46 AM, air_raid said:

Nakamura vs Zayn wildly exceeds expectations, and I'm speaking as a massive fan of both wrestlers. I've never seen a debut match where the obvious "strong opponent to put over debutant strongly" result is executed so well - a tremendously competitive match in front of a rabid crowd, where you forgive that we all knew Nakamura would win, because they successfully created doubt along the way. Potentially, Shinsuke will never again look as good under the WWE umbrella as he does here. And that's on Zayn.

Funny thing is, I know that's only the most recent time I've banged on about what a great job Sami did doing the job in Dallas that night, not the only time.

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I don't like Nakamura, mostly for the fact that he's dubbed the King of Strong Style despite possessing the piss-weakest offence since Booker T. But at least they're trying to do *something* with him now.

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The last time I bought a ticket to a WWE show was to see Nakamura (well, his entrance) in person. He was wrestling Ziggler but still.

I get why they put Dolph with him as his first main roster opponent but it didn’t half kill my interest in him. It’s like when the new champion had to feud with Kane after Mania.

That, and when they mucked about with his entrance so the moves didn’t time up to the right bits anymore.

His entrance though. I’d never seen Nakamura before Takeover Dallas and by the time he got to the ring for the match with Sami he was already the most exciting wrestler I’d ever seen. It was incredible. Incredible. And then they had what’s still one of my favourite ever matches. Maybe it was impossible to keep that momentum, but what an all-time great first night he had.

Edited by HarmonicGenerator
I put his entrance music on on the iPod and want to watch the Zayn match again
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Like Joe, Roode and some others who should have been on the big shows immediately, Nakamura came up from NXT stale and with big defeats under his belt already. I hated that era of NXT. Instead of getting exciting new talent to freshen up Raw and SD, it was just like getting a draft pick from the third brand, who's probably just lost at the TakeOver before. It was stupid.

 

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