What’s the story?
This Saturday night at NXT TakeOver: Orlando will mark the one year anniversary since the debut of Shinsuke Nakamura in NXT.
Rumours have swirled lately that Nakamura will be called up to the main roster sooner rather than later, and according to an interview that he did with CBSSports, “The King of Strong Style” already knows which brand he wants to represent once he gets the call-up.
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Nakamura debuted last year during WrestleMania weekend at NXT TakeOver: Dallas when he defeated Sami Zayn in what many considered the “Match of the Year” within the company.
Since then, Nakamura has become the most popular Superstar in NXT and has won the NXT Heavyweight Title twice in his short one-year WWE career.
Also read: WWE News: AJ Styles says he'll face Shinsuke Nakamura in the near future
He also won “Male Competitor of the Year” and “Overall Competitor of the Year” during last year’s NXT Awards. This Saturday, Nakamura will square off against Bobby Roode in the NXT TakeOver: San Antonio rematch that is sure to steal the show.
With little left to accomplish in WWE’s developmental brand, many believe Nakamura will be called up to the main roster soon, maybe as early as the night after WrestleMania.
The heart of the matter
According to the interview that he did with CBSSports, Nakamura has already decided which brand he wants to be a part of once he gets called up. Here’s what “The King of Strong Style” said about his main roster call up:
“I want to be on SmackDown because it has AJ Styles, Randy Orton, and John Cena – a lot of dream matches I can do.”
While making it clear that he wanted to be a part of the blue brand on the main roster, Nakamura also had nice things to say about WWE’s other weekly television show, Monday Night Raw:
“Also, Monday Night Raw has a lot of friends there [who previously wrestled in Japan] like Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Gallows and Anderson, which would be much comfortable for me.”
What’s next?
While nobody knows for sure when Nakamura will get called up to the main roster, it’s a foregone conclusion that “The King of Strong Style” belongs to the big time under the WWE lights.
Time will tell which brand he ends up debuting on, but in the meantime, Nakamura is focused on his matchup this weekend with Bobby Roode at NXT TakeOver: Orlando for the NXT Heavyweight Championship.
Author’s take
The thought of Nakamura vs. AJ Styles or Nakamura vs. John Cena is something special. They’re matches that the WWE Universe have clamoured for since WWE signed Shinsuke.
Also, matchups such as Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin and Nakamura vs. Bray Wyatt are matches that have been on the minds of fans everywhere for the past year and could end up pushing SmackDown LIVE ahead of Raw in the ratings game.
It would not surprise me to see Nakamura lose his rematch to Roode at TakeOver this weekend and debut on the Raw or SmackDown after WrestleMania 33.
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