Omega: Nakamura hasn't had any compelling matches in WWE yet

[héad.casé]

"I'm happy for the response that he's getting, of course, and all of us in New Japan knew when he left that he was going to get over with his charisma. But when I see Nakamura in WWE, it's hard for me to say he's done anything compelling in-ring since he's been there, which is a shame. It will just take the one right story and the one right moment and then people will be captivated by everything that he does. Right now, he hasn't had that."

"Even to another degree, everything in WWE is super over-booked. Some people in WWE even need the steps and their footing in the ring choreographed. They have to pace their breathing before they even go through with a match in the ring. When you're used to dealing with people who need that match management, who need to have that much choreography in their matches before they go out there and perform, then when a guy like Nakamura – who is this new age 'strong style,' and a lot of that is based off emotion and feeling and fighting spirit – wrestles someone who needs marks on the ring so that he can get his footing right with a set of instructions, that's where Nakamura's style gets lost in translation. Everything starts to come across as soulless, if that makes any sense."

wrestlinginc.com/wi/news/2017/1227/635331/kenny-omega-says-shinsuke-nakamura-hasnt-done-anything/

[mrbananagrabber]

He’s not wrong, certainly on the main roster. I honestly think they have no idea what to do with him.

[Deleted]

On the main roster? He's 100% right.

Can't blame that on Big Jind either. Remember Nakamura's first feud was with that human "4 Your Eyez Only" album aka Dolph Ziggler. He was getting his ass kicked most of his first main roster match, remember that? Nakamura was being dominated by Ziggler and their matches weren't even good. After that feud he feuded with Corbin in which Corbin not only ambushed dude but Corbin won that MITB. By the time he faced Jinder the man just finished him off. I swear, Nakamura's fall is one of the saddest out of the NXT post-Shield alumi. Hell even the announcers broke dude's gimmick. Nakamura isn't supposed to be understood, he's supposed to be an enigma. When you got Michael Cole laughing and shit it makes him look like a dork. Like I thought Nakamura was cool in NXT, I was with his actions but on the main roster he's embarrassing. I don't even wanna entertain the idea of him against Styles at WM. He ain't ready.

[kidkamikaze10]

I very much agree with this. WWE's problem stems from over management on the wrong stuff.

NJPW does occasional do that choeragraphy. The easiest person to notice it from is Okada when he does his rainmaker pose.

But the constant micromanaging takes a lot away from the wrestlers. Yes, some of them, namely the lesser skilled ones, need that.

But it's a miracle AJ is able to adapt, because even a wilder wrestler like Asuka feels staler in this format.


Mind you, this isn't just in ring or entrance related. This applies to the mic work too.

[Aboutreika18]

Soulless is a pretty good word to describe the WWE product as a whole these days.

[Deleted]

I'd say the Zayn match was but other than that, yeah, I have not been remotely impressed by anything I have seen out of Nakamura.

[Slanted and Enchanted]

On Smackdown Nakamura had two very good matches with Cena and Orton for the short time allotted. And that's the problem. Nakamura faced off against these two legends in forgettable 10minute affairs on Smackdown and was wasted to Kinder Mahal on two consecutive PPVs. His matches with Cena/Orton should have been built up for weeks and the payoff for both matches should have been 20 minute affairs on PPV. I guarantee you those two matches would have been 2017 MOTY contenders.

I wouldn't say Nakamura is a lost cause as many see to think though. His appearances on SDL are still the main event. And he usually wins those main events. He's still a favorite for the Rumble and a match against AJ at WM still looks likely. He's just in a weird holding pattern right now and in WWE world anybody can get their credibility back with a few big victories after months of irrelevance (their logic not mine).

[Pushed to the Moon]

The only Nakamura match I saw pre WWE was vs AJ in Japan and it's one of the best matches I've ever seen. If I'd only ever seen him in WWE I wouldn't think he was anything special at all and wonder what the hype was about.

[eJm]

Dec 27, 2017 19:36:51 GMT -5 Pushed to the Moon said:

The only Nakamura match I saw pre WWE was vs AJ in Japan and it's one of the best matches I've ever seen.

The scariest thing about that match, to me, is that for how great that match was, it never felt like they went above 50-70% and held something back yet it still was better than a lot of other matches that year.

Which, if it happens, a WrestleMania/B-PPV match between them could genuinely be better.

[The Yes Man]

His NXT TakeOver matches with Zayn (especially him), Aries, Joe, and Roode were all pretty good, but the main roster hasn’t been good for Shinsuke at all.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

The Zayn match. The Orton match. The Cena match. Only times I've enjoyed Nak in-ring since coming to Walk With Elias.

And man, for being relatively young, Omega has a great mind when it comes to wrestling.

[Urethra Franklin]

Dec 27, 2017 21:16:19 GMT -5 Fade is a CodyCryBaby said:

The Zayn match. The Orton match. The Cena match. Only times I've enjoyed Nak in-ring since coming to Walk With Elias.

And man, for being relatively young, Omega has a great mind when it comes to wrestling.

I got to interview Omega for work earlier this year and the dude just gets it. He’s a really smart guy.

[The Rick Jericho]

Honestly who is a good matchup for Shinsuke's style?

Balor? Styles?

Then who?

[cabbageboy]

Well he could wrestle Zayn again since that has been his best WWE or NXT match. The more I hear from Omega the less it seems like he wants to come to WWE. While he hasn't been as involved in the wacky Bullet Club stuff as the Young Bucks or Cody, he certainly doesn't hold back in critiquing WWE.

Styles hasn't had much trouble because he at least knows how to work an American style match and was on national TV for about a decade. His style also doesn't involve as much of the "beat the crap out of someone" style that goes along with Japanese strong style. To me that is the big problem. The whole Japanese style of wrestling in New Japan is full of shock and awe, as in "Whoa, those guys are just beating the hell out of each other." In WWE these guys wouldn't do that, so it just looks like they are doing a bunch of typical worked kicks and open hand slaps, etc. Not as much impact.

[sportatorium]

Omega pretty much nails it. I’d even take it a step beyond to say that WWE doesn’t know what to do with Nakamura and probably never will.

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

Yep, "soulless" is about the right way to describe WWE's product, including the in-ring work. Yeah, you'll still have the standout matches but by and large, a lot of these matches just feel...the same. In addition, I can't even think of the last big WWE match that delivered to the hype. They do strong builds to matches, make you want to see it, and then...the match goes over like a wet fart. It's a real bad pattern they've established with their audience and it's no surprise why people don't watch wrestling any more. Unless you're a hardcore fan, how could you watch this shit on a regular basis? You're constantly disappointed by the lack of fulfilling climaxes.

[HMARK Center]

Dec 27, 2017 23:12:50 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

Well he could wrestle Zayn again since that has been his best WWE or NXT match. The more I hear from Omega the less it seems like he wants to come to WWE. While he hasn't been as involved in the wacky Bullet Club stuff as the Young Bucks or Cody, he certainly doesn't hold back in critiquing WWE.

Styles hasn't had much trouble because he at least knows how to work an American style match and was on national TV for about a decade. His style also doesn't involve as much of the "beat the crap out of someone" style that goes along with Japanese strong style. To me that is the big problem. The whole Japanese style of wrestling in New Japan is full of shock and awe, as in "Whoa, those guys are just beating the hell out of each other." In WWE these guys wouldn't do that, so it just looks like they are doing a bunch of typical worked kicks and open hand slaps, etc. Not as much impact.

Honestly, while believable offense is definitely a factor in puro I don't think it's necessarily what's missing right now for Shinsuke. Yes, there are spots that happen in NJPW that we'll never see in WWE, partly a product of the lighter travel schedule, but on the whole that tends to be secondary to their matches working so well because they use the matches themselves as the primary vehicle for storytelling in the company, whereas in WWE the matches are almost always secondary in terms of narrative importance to what's said in promos/what's shot for backstage vignettes. "Fighting spirit", as one example of a puro trope, only works well when it's used in matches where the audience can believe that one or both of the competitors have a reason to feel so driven to come back from the brink of annihilation and throw whatever they've got left in the tank at their opponent, and that's usually accomplished by spending the first portion of the match building an in-ring story that makes it worthwhile.

For example, if they're going to do AJ/Shinsuke for the title at Mania that's great, and the setting itself provides a ready-made stage for a simple yet effective in-ring story, but I always fear what WWE will do to attempt to "plus" the encounter and put their stamp on it, since it so often actually detracts from the eventual confrontation.

As for someone Nakamura could work with really well in WWE, definitely to Styles and Balor, and obviously Zayn, but throw in Owens (Nakamura vs. Steen happened in ROH a handful of years ago) and, good Lord, give the guy Cesaro and let them go to town.

[Corre.222]

Kenny Omega doesn't sound like a man joining WWE anytime soon, and I don't blame him.

[This Player Hating Mothman]

Nakamura's whole run has kind of been hampered by what is very obviously "His body is broken down and he's here to make good money working a lighter style". I do believe if he gets into a big situation where there's something on the line worth killing himself for he'll show that same kind of something special he was showing in Japan, but I can totally see why nobody would want him in a Mania title match against AJ given the reality of how he's underdelivered.

[Jedi-El of Tomorrow]

Dec 27, 2017 22:00:52 GMT -5 The Rick Jericho said:

Honestly who is a good matchup for Shinsuke's style?

Balor? Styles?

Then who?

He and Cena had a hell of a match on Smackdown, give them the main event of a ppv and 20 to 30 minutes, and they'll tear the house down.