PWP Nation’s Bruce Hart talks about the acquired Shinsuke Nakamura, the history of Japanese wrestling and more.
Greetings, I’m intrigued with reports that the WWE is endeavoring to bring in highly touted Japanese star, Shinsuke Nakamura. On paper, that sounds like a step in the right direction, as the WWE’s present roster is somewhat stagnant and a guy with Nakamura’s pedigree would be a welcome addition. I, nonetheless, remain skeptical about the whole charade, because in the past he WWE, has brought in other stars from Japan, including the likes of Hakushi, Tajiri, Funaki, Michinoku and Ultimo Dragon – all of whom were highly regarded and most of them were chewed up and spit out, so much so that it almost appeared that the WWE’s main intention was to demean Japanese wrestling, rather than to use them to their advantage. Even though Japan has a long and extremely distinguished wrestling history, the only “Japanese wrestler” to ever become WWE world champion has been Yokozuna (Rodney Ano’ia) (who wasn’t even Japanese).
Not to digress, but when I was booking my dad’s Stampede Wrestling promotion back in the 80’s and 90’s, we had a number of Japanese prospects, including Liger, Hase, Hashimoto, Hirada, Sazaki, Sakurada, Hito, Saito and Takano – all of whom would go on to become major stars upon their return to Japan. One of the reasons why they got over so well was that we didn’t try to make them abandon their Japanese style and conform to our style. Instead, we encouraged them to integrate the high tech Japanese style with what our workers, such as the Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith and my brothers Bret and Owen, were doing. That people pulling the strings in the WWE will give Nakamura the opportunity he deserves to show what he’s really capable of, but I wouldn’t count on it.
On another front, I caught that fiasco on SmackDown this past week in which the so-called Authority had ten guys (Sheamus, Kevin Owens, Alberto Del Rio, Tyler Breeze, Cody Rhodes, Ascension and the three guys from New Day) kicking the shit out of Roman Reigns for close to fifteen minutes, before Brock Lesnar finally hit the ring, initially appearing to be saving Roman, as he laid waste to the ten guys who had been abusing him. Subsequent to that, Lesnar put the boots to the limp and already beaten Reigns.
I’m not sure what the hell the ostensible purpose of that whole, contrived charade was, nor, I suspect do they. Not to be raining on their proverbial parade, but that kind of ill-considered and illicit horse shit not only invites derision but it insults the intelligence of the marks. Generally, when you shoot an angle such as that, there should be some ostensible objective – such as getting somebody over, or getting serious heat or setting the table for something. That certainly didn’t appear to be the case here, as it didn’t do much for Roman – to first get the shit kicked out of him by all those heels and then, after he was already beaten to a proverbial pulp, to have Brock beat the proverbial dead horse, some more.
It didn’t do a whole hell of a lot for Brock either, because the other heels, not he, were the ones who had kicked Roman’s ass and all he did was come in, like some kind of after the fact scavenger, feeding on somebody else’s kill. As for Kevin, Sheamus, Alberto and the rest of the heels, having had their asses kicked by a fellow heel, like Brock, didn’t do much for their collective images and kind of reduced their stature to about the same level as bottom of the card jabroneys, like Heath Slater and Adam Rose.
I surmise that the scriptwriters in the WWE who were responsible for orchestrating that asinine story line probably figure that they’ve hit a proverbial home run and have set the stage for the big blowoff at Wrestlemania between Brock and Roman. If I were fan though I’d be pissed off that they were insulting my intelligence with implausible, contrived crap like that and I sure as hell wouldn’t be lining up to buy a ticket.
It’s none of my business to be telling Vinnie Mac and his enlightened and exalted creative team how to be running their business, but it would be nice, once in a while, to see some semblance of plausibility and respectability, rather than this ongoing “flinging shit against the wall and hoping something will stick” mindset. The fans, who are paying the tab for all of this sure as hell deserve a lot better than this. On that note, I’ll call it a wrap for this week, but shall look forward to hooking up with you again next week, for more candid commentary on whatever’s hot and whatever’s not, in the wrestling world.
Thanks for reading!