Appearing on a recent episode of Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions, Shinsuke Nakamura has opened up about why he started wrestling.
Shinsuke Nakamura began his career with New Japan Wrestling in 2002. The ‘King Of Strong Style’ enjoyed a gold-laden run in his homeland, winning the IWGP Heavyweight Championship three times and the IWGP Intercontinental Championship five times among numerous other honours.
Nakamura would later depart New Japan in 2016 joining WWE. During his time stateside, Nakamura has won the Royal Rumble as well as the NXT Title.
Reflecting on his motivation to start wrestling, the Japanese Superstar said that he was a big fan of ninja and samurai, before revealing a love of Jackie Chan movies.
“I wanted to be a man, so that’s why I started. I was interesting in martial arts. Also I’m a big fan of ninja and samurai, finally I found wrestling. So wrestlers do matches almost every day, so that makes me tough I think, then I should be a wrestler. [Renee: You were also a fan of Jackie Chan?] Yes, I watched Jackie Chan’s movies since I was in elementary school, he was very very popular in Asia.”
On the most recent episode of SmackDown Nakamura was joined by a debuting Rick Boogs.
Boogs interrupted Nakamura’s rival in recent weeks King Corbin during a promo before Corbin’s rematch with the Japanese star. The week prior the two men met one on one with Corbin coming out on top.
After that match, however, Nakamura taunted the King of SmackDown by stealing his crown. With Corbin in full flow on the microphone, Boogs cut in with his guitar before telling Corbin that he was there to stand with the real king of the blue brand. Nakamura then made his entrance adorned with Corbin’s crown while Boogs played along with his entrance theme.