Kushida will kill it in WWE

[abjordans]

So, really WK 13 was my first taste of him, but I think he will do great. Nostalgia is so big now, the Timesplitter gimmick will be money. The 90s throwback merch will sell, the gimmick will get over, I think he will do great. What say you?

[HMARK Center]

KUSHIDA is one of the top in-ring workers on planet Earth. He's outstanding.

I'd love for him to do well wherever he goes, but if it's WWE I'm not sure what his ceiling is given his lack of size and his mostly subdued personality. The guy can tell an outstanding story in the ring and is capable of working against just about any style of opponent, but those factors could be limiters on him.

[Deleted]

Nah. Nakamura is the best Japanese wrestler to come to the states since The Great Muta and they couldn’t even pull the trigger on him.

That pop he got when he won the Rumble aswell. Like... HOW do they f*** that up?

KUSHIDA will get a strong run on NXT but I feel his ceiling is the midcard.

[abjordans]

Jan 7, 2019 10:34:09 GMT -5 @negan said:

Nah. Nakamura is the best Japanese wrestler to come to the states since The Great Muta and they couldn’t even pull the trigger on him.

That pop he got when he won the Rumble aswell. Like... HOW do they f*** that up?

KUSHIDA will get a strong run on NXT but I feel his ceiling is the midcard.

I mean... He had a ceiling in Japan too, that is cited as the reason he is leaving. And Nakamura has had a pretty damn good run. If he does as much as Nakamura, he will be in a really good spot. I didn’t say he would be the top guy, just that he will have a good run. There is lots for him to do and it should be fun.

[brown bricks]

He'll be a hell of a hand battling Itami on 205 Live.

Why the hell any New Japan wrestler would go to WWE after looking at how they've handled Nakamura, I have no idea. I'm sure the money is a factor.

[Ludwig Kaiser’s Walk]

So you wanna play in NPB forever, or try things in the MLB?

I get people being frustrated about how Nakamura has been booked, but the WWE is an easier style with more money and is the global brand, so I don’t see why someone wouldn’t try it.

[Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-]]

We always say someone is gonna be great in WWE and two weeks later we have a thread about how bad WWE is blowing it with the character.

Like EVERY SINGLE TIME, so I'm just gonna sit back and watch the fires if Kushida goes there.

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

Jan 7, 2019 11:38:33 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

We always say someone is gonna be great in WWE and two weeks later we have a thread about how bad WWE is blowing it with the character.

Like EVERY SINGLE TIME, so I'm just gonna sit back and watch the fires if Kushida goes there.

I just assume they will f*** everything up at this point, and if it happens otherwise I'll be pleasantly surprised.

[Bub (BLM)]

Jan 7, 2019 11:38:33 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

We always say someone is gonna be great in WWE and two weeks later we have a thread about how bad WWE is blowing it with the character.

Like EVERY SINGLE TIME, so I'm just gonna sit back and watch the fires if Kushida goes there.

Literally the only person in recent memory this hasn't happened to is AJ Styles. He showed up and has been killing it since day one.

[Allie Kitsune]

Jan 7, 2019 11:38:33 GMT -5 Xxcjb01xX [PIECE OF: SH-] said:

We always say someone is gonna be great in WWE and two weeks later we have a thread about how bad WWE is blowing it with the character.

Like EVERY SINGLE TIME, so I'm just gonna sit back and watch the fires if Kushida goes there.

If he gets an NXT run, he'll do alright there. But as always, the Main Roster will shit the bed with him afterward.

[HMARK Center]

Jan 7, 2019 11:25:24 GMT -5 brown bricks said:

He'll be a hell of a hand battling Itami on 205 Live.

Why the hell any New Japan wrestler would go to WWE after looking at how they've handled Nakamura, I have no idea. I'm sure the money is a factor.

In fairness, there can be a few reasons: wanting a new challenge, the chance to earn the most money available in the industry, a chance to work in more countries than you might have been able to before, and the possibility of returning to Japan later as a conquering hero with the potential for a greater pay day.

KUSHIDA is a guy with a lot of experience in North America (and I'm pretty sure he's bilingual), so I think he knows what he's getting into, but I agree that I really have no interest in what WWE will end up doing with him. AJ Styles is the greatest success story of the current crop of names to make the jump to WWE, and while he's been a great character and had some really good matches, it still sticks out to me that they can't book him in a halfway decent feud with names like Owens, Zayn, Joe, or Nakamura; really kills my expectations for anybody else headed there.

[ANuclearError]

So long as we get the Pinheads tag team if him and Kenny Williams, I'll be good.

[BlahBlah]

Has Nakamura been booked poorly though? Let's be honest he's had one legit great match in the WWE and it was his first one. Through it all he's always been a big deal, main event stories, won the rumble, etc.

[Juice]

There's no confirmation he's going to wwe yet either. Could be AEW. But it literally doesn't hurt to try thr bigger company just to see what happens. Njpw will be there in 1-3 years when the contract ends.

[JCBaggee]

Jan 7, 2019 11:25:24 GMT -5 brown bricks said:

He'll be a hell of a hand battling Itami on 205 Live.

Why the hell any New Japan wrestler would go to WWE after looking at how they've handled Nakamura, I have no idea. I'm sure the money is a factor.

I think a lot of the guys just want it on their resume that they wrestled in WWE so they can say they were there, either to increase their value or just because it's something they want to say they did for a cup of coffee.

[corndog]

The only real similarity between Nakamura and KUSHIDA is they are both Japanese wrestlers that are from New Japan. But their styles are completely different. Nakamura's style is pure strong style, which is heavily reliant on strong striking that is pretty much useless in WWE because of their camera work and the fact that most WWE wrestlers don't want to exchange stiff forearm shots and hard knees to the face. KUSHIDA is a much more well rounded wrestler, who knows the American style very well. He is a hybrid of submission wrestling, technical and high flying, which should transition very easily to WWE and even moreso with NXT. While he does use strong striking, a lot of it is kicks which are used in WWE. So wrestling wise, KUSHIDA has a huge advantage over Nakamura.

Where KUSHIDA will struggle is the charisma department, he doesn't have much. He has relied heavily on his in ring work to get over. Where as Nakamura, in his current form, which is based off his "King of Strong Style" character from CHAOS, is ridiculously charismatic. WWE will need to give KUSHIDA a gimmick, as they probably won't use his "Back to the Future" gimmick in fear of copyright infringement.

However, on the plus side, while his accent is fairly thick, he does understand and speak English fairly well and he is a resident of Toronto(not sure if he has Canadian citizenship yet).

[Allie Kitsune]

Jan 7, 2019 13:21:51 GMT -5 corndog said:

The only real similarity between Nakamura and KUSHIDA is they are both Japanese wrestlers that are from New Japan. But their styles are completely different. Nakamura's style is pure strong style, which is heavily reliant on strong striking that is pretty much useless in WWE because of their camera work and the fact that most WWE wrestlers don't want to exchange stiff forearm shots and hard knees to the face. KUSHIDA is a much more well rounded wrestler, who knows the American style very well. He is a hybrid of submission wrestling, technical and high flying, which should transition very easily to WWE and even moreso with NXT. While he does use strong striking, a lot of it is kicks which are used in WWE. So wrestling wise, KUSHIDA has a huge advantage over Nakamura.

Where KUSHIDA will struggle is the charisma department, he doesn't have much. He has relied heavily on his in ring work to get over. Where as Nakamura, in his current form, which is based off his "King of Strong Style" character from CHAOS, is ridiculously charismatic. WWE will need to give KUSHIDA a gimmick, as they probably won't use his "Back to the Future" gimmick in fear of copyright infringement.

However, on the plus side, while his accent is fairly thick, he does understand and speak English fairly well and he is a resident of Toronto(not sure if he has Canadian citizenship yet).

Kenny Williams is still sporting his Discount Kushida gear in NXT UK, so maybe Kushida will be able to keep some of it...

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Jan 7, 2019 11:48:10 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

Jan 7, 2019 11:25:24 GMT -5 brown bricks said:

He'll be a hell of a hand battling Itami on 205 Live.

Why the hell any New Japan wrestler would go to WWE after looking at how they've handled Nakamura, I have no idea. I'm sure the money is a factor.

In fairness, there can be a few reasons: wanting a new challenge, the chance to earn the most money available in the industry, a chance to work in more countries than you might have been able to before, and the possibility of returning to Japan later as a conquering hero with the potential for a greater pay day.

KUSHIDA is a guy with a lot of experience in North America (and I'm pretty sure he's bilingual), so I think he knows what he's getting into, but I agree that I really have no interest in what WWE will end up doing with him. AJ Styles is the greatest success story of the current crop of names to make the jump to WWE, and while he's been a great character and had some really good matches, it still sticks out to me that they can't book him in a halfway decent feud with names like Owens, Zayn, Joe, or Nakamura; really kills my expectations for anybody else headed there.

I still stand by that Nakamura feud and Joe wasn't all that bad

However, in saying that AJ has been booked like a legend since Day 1 despite what people try to say. If you can get that booking the results will vary but the company clearly believes you and keeps putting you in positions to be on top so yeah if you are booked as even half of what AJ has he's golden from that perspective

Overall, Kushida will do okay. He's a beast on the ring and will get his time to shine in that regard. Assuming he keeps the Back to the Future type character I think it will get over good enough especially in NXT which is where I assume he goes for the first year.

[Captain Stud Muffin (BLM)]

Jan 7, 2019 12:48:00 GMT -5 JCBaggee said:

Jan 7, 2019 11:25:24 GMT -5 brown bricks said:

He'll be a hell of a hand battling Itami on 205 Live.

Why the hell any New Japan wrestler would go to WWE after looking at how they've handled Nakamura, I have no idea. I'm sure the money is a factor.

I think a lot of the guys just want it on their resume that they wrestled in WWE so they can say they were there, either to increase their value or just because it's something they want to say they did for a cup of coffee.

Or because despite everything WWE is still a dream job

[HMARK Center]

Jan 7, 2019 13:37:00 GMT -5 Captain Stud Muffin (BLM) said:

Jan 7, 2019 11:48:10 GMT -5 HMARK Center said:

In fairness, there can be a few reasons: wanting a new challenge, the chance to earn the most money available in the industry, a chance to work in more countries than you might have been able to before, and the possibility of returning to Japan later as a conquering hero with the potential for a greater pay day.

KUSHIDA is a guy with a lot of experience in North America (and I'm pretty sure he's bilingual), so I think he knows what he's getting into, but I agree that I really have no interest in what WWE will end up doing with him. AJ Styles is the greatest success story of the current crop of names to make the jump to WWE, and while he's been a great character and had some really good matches, it still sticks out to me that they can't book him in a halfway decent feud with names like Owens, Zayn, Joe, or Nakamura; really kills my expectations for anybody else headed there.

I still stand by that Nakamura feud and Joe wasn't all that bad

However, in saying that AJ has been booked like a legend since Day 1 despite what people try to say. If you can get that booking the results will vary but the company clearly believes you and keeps putting you in positions to be on top so yeah if you are booked as even half of what AJ has he's golden from that perspective

Overall, Kushida will do okay. He's a beast on the ring and will get his time to shine in that regard. Assuming he keeps the Back to the Future type character I think it will get over good enough especially in NXT which is where I assume he goes for the first year.

Yeah, AJ's certainly been booked as a big deal, no doubt about it; just for me from a fan perspective I feel WWE's writing woes keep his stories from feeling interesting most of the time, and that's the problem.

I guess it's kind of my issue whenever talk of "so and so might come to WWE" crops up: people get excited, guy comes in and usually things go kind of "meh", and the shows continue not to be very good, yet people then get all excited again the next time a name is talked about as potentially heading to WWE as if the same thing isn't likely to happen again. Until WWE's booking, writing, and match layout styles change, I can't imagine any talent coming in and stopping things from feeling pretty flat and uninteresting. Doesn't mean I won't be happy for the guys if they're getting paid well and are content with how they're doing, that's all a professional can ask for, but again just speaking from a fan perspective.