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Reigning United States Champion Shinsuke Nakamura was recently spotted with a WWE Hall of Famer in Japan. Nakamura went home for the holidays and spent some time with The Great Muta in Tokyo.
The King of Strong Style returned to WWE television last month and targeted LA Knight. He had a darker look, complete with face paint and poison mist. He defeated Knight at Survivor Series: WarGames to win the United States Championship for the third time in his career.
With Triple H granting the entire roster with time off for the Christmas season, Nakamura returned home to Japan. The Great Muta shared an image of himself with the U.S. Champ at the Ribera Steakhouse, a Tokyo restaurant famous for being a hangout place for wrestlers around the world.
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"Lunch with these guys today!" The Great Muta tweeted.
Shinsuke Nakamura and The Great Muta were joined by Japanese wrestling legend Riki Chosu and actor Tomoya Nagase. Muta was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last year just a couple of months after officially retiring as an in-ring performer.
Nakamura will remain in Japan until early January since he's scheduled to face Ulka Sasaki at Pro Wrestling Noah's Noah The New Year 2025 event on January 1 at the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.
Former WWE writer explains why Shinsuke Nakamura's return fixes company's problem
One of the biggest problems in WWE today is the high number of babyfaces and the lack of top heels for them to feud. Former WWE writer and Hollywood actor Freddie Prinze Jr. explained on his Wrestling with Freddie podcast why Shinsuke Nakamura's return and United States Title win fixes it.
"Even though everybody loves Shinsuke, and he looks awesome, you have a heel champion, who can go in there and do the dirty things that make the crowd boo and get the responses that you want so other people can chase," Prinze said. [13:48 - 14:00]
In addition to Solo Sikoa's Bloodline, there's only a handful of top heels on SmackDown like Kevin Owens, Carmelo Hayes and Santos Escobar. #DIY, A-Town Down Under, Pretty Deadly and Los Garza are all heels, but they are tag teams.
