2016 brought WWE two massive international stars who were previously tearing houses down for New Japan. AJ Styles debuted at the 2016 Royal Rumble and was a dominant world champion by the end of the year. Shinsuke Nakamura, meanwhile, debuted in NXT during WrestleMania weekend and became the second two-time NXT Champion. Somehow, Styles doesn’t yet have an opponent for WrestleMania 33, but Nakamura is tossing his hat in the ring.
In an interview with Yahoo! Japan, Nakamura reflected on his year with WWE, and Chris Charlton was nice enough to translate the meatiest portion.
“If the [WrestleMania] opportunity presented itself, I want to do it. AJ doesn’t have an opponent yet, and I’d like to fill that spot. I’ve achieved a lot this year, but there’s much more to do. I want to make more strides over the next year and show my true ability.”
The two have met before, having one of the matches of the year at Wrestle Kingdom 10 just before Styles left for WWE. The latest rumors for Styles’ WrestleMania opponent have him possibly going up against Smackdown honcho Shane McMahon, possibly for being screwed over one too many times. But there’s over a month to go until Mania, and that’s plenty of time to introduce Nakamura and point them at each other. After all, Samoa Joe just debuted over on Raw.
Well, we can dream, anyway. One thing’s for sure: Nakamura will be on the main roster at some point this year. There’s just nothing left for him to do in NXT. Don’t get your hopes up too high just yet, but Nakamura seems to want the same match we all do.
