Shinsuke Nakamura's rare matches outside WWE you might have not seen (with videos)
Shinsuke Nakamura is one of the best wrestlers in the world. Over the past several years, he has evolved from a relatively boring and straightforward shootfighter of a wrestler to a wacky and esoteric character that oozes charisma like nobody else.
This drawing power of his hasn’t gone unnoticed, as he has become the first Japanese wrestler to win the WWE Royal Rumble. Now, Nakamura’s set to take on his erstwhile rival A.J. Styles for the WWE Championship, and many people are looking forward to the instant classic that will be.
But some people might not be too familiar with Nakamura’s matches outside of WWE and NXT, and thus might not understand why he’s such a big star. This list will help solve that problem, by presenting five matches Shinsuke Nakamura had outside of WWE that helped elevate him into the world-class-calibre athlete that he is today.
#5 Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kevin Steen – ROH War of the Worlds 2014
Before both men made their way to WWE, Nakamura and Steen had a match at ROH War of the Worlds, which was one of the biggest matches that promotion had seen that year. The audience loved the match so much that they began chanting ‘This is awesome’ before the bell had even been rung.
The match is also memorable for a short ‘comedy’ segment’ involving Steen mocking Nakamura for his unusual ‘Good Vibrations’ foot stomping attack. Although this isn’t as much of a technical grappling masterpiece as other matches on this list, it’s an exciting match nonetheless because it gave fans a glimpse of Nakamura wrestling in a more ‘Americanized’ style, and needless to say he passed the test with flying colours.