Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Pro Wrestling: World Wrestling Entertainment 2017 so far part 2

For part 2 lets examine Smackdown further specifically Shinsuke Nakamura. This Sunday at SummerSlam could be a big deal for the blue team. It sticks out to me especially since I was at a WWE show recently. The show before that also featured Nakamura in a prominent spot on the card.


Yeah, I was there the night AJ won the United States Championship. I was driven to go because on the local advertising here they mentioned how it would be the MSG debut of Shinsuke Nakamura and Finn Balor. That is a big deal. There was a video once on New Japans YouTube where Nakamura talked about what its like to wrestle in the United States. Thankfully it had subtitles. In the video he mentioned how one of his goals in life was to wrestle at Madison Square Garden. That was one year before he left New Japan to come work for World Wrestling Entertainment. This is a big deal because Nakamura knew that there is only one company that puts on wrestling shows in Madison Square Garden. So for all those people who at like NJPW was surprised when he left for WWE, you weren't paying attention. If you looked at the old blog you'll see that I was at the first NXT show in the Theatre at MSG which was headlined by Nakamura. That's just the theatre The Garden is the main show.

Invasion Attack 2011
Now thinking back to the first time I saw Nakamura live being back in Invasion Attack 2011 at what can only be described as a warehouse. The only way you even knew there was a wrestling show there was because of a small sign hanging from the gate it so clearly he's come a long way. Finn Balor falls under that same umbrella. From watching him defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to being at MSG is a great achievement. But this post is about Smackdown so lets stick to it.
Fergal Devitt at Invasion Attack 2011



Now Nakamura is going to be challenging for the WWE Championshipp in Brooklyn at the second biggest WWE Pay-Per-View of the year. Will he win? A week ago I would have said its 50/50. But now I'm thinking he will win just because of what happened at the New Japan G1 number 27 tournament. This years tournament has been the talk of the wrestling with it being called one of the best top to bottom tournaments in years. Why would that effect WWEs decision to make Nakamura WWE Champion? Just to take away some of the spotlight off the G1 shows. It sends the message that WWE can do in one show what took New Japan 12 shows. It can make a Japanese wrestler into a major Superstar.



I know the current knock on Nakamura is that he doesn't always "bring it" in each match. Well here's the thing, when he first started he viewed as one of the future cornerstones of New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was thought that with his size and style he could be the hybrid wrestler and mixed martial arts fighter. Nakamura trained in both pro wrestling style and MMA. It showed in his early matches which just looked like fights all the time. He went into the ring with a angry look on his face and beat the shit out of someone. It was fine for a while but his opponents didn't care for it. So they started fighting back. I don't mean wrestling fighting back I mean shoot fight, shoot wrestling fight back. So of course he would hurt them but they would hurt him. That's when the injuries started piling up. That's when he became labeled as "injury prone". So Nakamura looked at what was happening and changed his style.



The Nakamura you see today is because he realized that there are time to go out a beat the shit out out of someone but it's not all the time. What's important is that once your over you use that to do less but do it smarter. In other words he learned how to sell. If you watch an old Nakamura match he used to never sell. Selling means showing weakness to gain sympathy from the audience. He never did that he stayed in terminator mode the whole time. By showing more personality in an over the top manner is how we got the "King of Strong Style" that we have today. Originally being called King of Strong Style was meant to imply he just beats the shit out of everyone. Now by WWE staying away from the that and calling him "The Artist Know As..." it kind of takes away from his badass history.


Would it be better if he went back to just fighting everyone in a match? No, that would be a terrible idea. For one people wouldn't want to work with him if they know their going to get injured. On the other hand he doesn't want to get hurt either. There's also the fact that WWE wants people to view its product as "family friendly". They don't want to see kids posting videos on the internet of them hitting each other with the running knee strike to the back of someones head. It's bad enough when they do RKOs, Attitude Adjustments, Tombstones, DDTs or Styles Clashes. These moves are dangerous for pros to do. Now add to that a move that is basically just a running knee to the face and you'll understand why he does a modified version on WWE television. He did the hard version once on his early days of NXT. Look at Nakamura versus Alex Riley before he ended up on Netflixs GLOW. This is the Nakamura people want to see on WWE all the time. But if you get this kind of brutality all the time there are too many problems to mention that will come from it.



This style works for wrestlers in Japan until they get into their mid-30s. Nakamura knows this very well which is why he only brings it out when it's a big show, match or when it's needed. Having said all that I expect that Nakamura is going to give Jinder Mahal a tough time on Sunday. The spotlight will be on not only in New York but also in Tokyo where the Japanese media will be following what happens in this match closely. But more important to them is how the match comes across. It doesn't have to be 5 or 6 stars but it better look like he's bringing Strong Style to the Biggest Party of the Summer. I think WWE expects the same. Which is why they'll make him champion.


Following that you should expect Nakamura versus, Owens, Rusev, Mahal, Corbin and even Orton and Styles. I don't see him being champion after the Royal Rumble but that's only because of what will happen at NJPWs Wrestle Kingdom 12. Until then lets see what actually happens. The idea of Nakamura versus some big guys is a theme that will be reflected on Smackdown as it will be on Raw. I do expect that what WWE does with Nakamura will be used to show certain guys, I should say guy, in NJPW that coming to WWE would be a smart move for his career. Don't be surprised if a King and a Rainmaker team up in WWE sooner than you'd expect. Enjoy.

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