[Fignuts]

Originally Posted by Noid Posted this in the official thread, but I loved the match. I think WWE television is generally really dumb, but Nakamura "hits it out of the park" in the way that they want. Saw clips of him faking on the Kinshasa -- dude is cheeky as fuck. I love it. I don't know if I will watch just because of Nakamura, but he's really good at what he does, folks, and I think Vince would have been happy with this as an overall performance. Vince used to like stories, and this one has a fairly meaty one for modern WWE standards. And it's simple. Wrestling is supposed to tell a story of conflict. It's easy to forget that when you get caught up in the internet bubble. There is conflict here. There is conflict between Shinsuke and AJ Styles (obviously). There is also conflict between Shinsuke Nakamura and the fans and what their respect is worth. And there is conflict within himself and whether or not he can make it in the WWE. I dunno, I kind of dig it. At least until they turn him into a comedy ninja or whatever. For now, I think it's good ol' rasslin. Good Guy Shin comes over to be the big star and be known as the best wrestler in the world, only for the fans to whinge about how disappointing he is, because he's more focused on winning than putting on a show and damaging his body. But he's unable to wrest the WWE Championship away from the real best wrestler on the planet, so Good Guy Shin makes a deal with the devil on his shoulder. Now I want to see more AJ vs. Nakamura matches, and I'm excited because they might tell an evolving story instead of just being a whole bunch of kicks to the head and kicking out of each other's finishers.

This is the main reason people were disappointed



Now, most people weren't naïve enough to think we were going to get the same kind of match, given they are two different companies with two different styles. But there are certain things in that match that made it great that go beyond match styles.

First off they were noticeably quicker in their first outing. Maybe AJ's injury played a factor in this match's slower pace. I don't know.

Secondly, they built to, and hit the bigger spots and near falls in a way that felt organic, and fit into the match naturally. The mania match, as I said earlier just felt much more produced. Hate to use the word choreographed outside of flippy floppy acrobatic junior matches, but that's kind of what it felt like. The Wrestle Kingdom match had much more natural feeling spots and shifts in momentum. Even something like that back and forth exchange at the beginning where AJ dodges the kick at the end. That one little exchange helped to set the tone that the Mania match was missing. WK match really felt like two of the best in the world, repeatedly countering eachother, neither able to maintain control for long because they're both so damn good.


And once again, the mania match was still very good. While it catered more to your typical WWE heavyweight match formula, they still told a good story, and if it were anyone else I'd probably be giving them more praise. The problem is it's not anyone else. It's AJ and Nakamura, and they set the god damn world on fire in their previous match, so it's impossible for me and a lot of other people to see this as anything but underwhelming.