Shinsuke Nakamura Discusses Wanting To Elevate The US Title, His Influences, More

– Shinsuke Nakamura recently spoke with Sports Illustrated, discussing adjusting to WWE & US style, his influences, making it into WWE 2k19 and more. Below are some highlights.

On His Adjustment To America & WWE Style: “WWE is a different form of wrestling. It’s different than New Japan. I wrestled a different style with New Japan, but WWE is a live TV show. I’m still learning. My family speaks the language better than me, and they’re trying to fix my English. It’s so different from the Japanese. The other stuff—moving, adjusting, and all that, that was a little bit tough. This was a challenge for me, starting at NXT. It was rare for me to be in that spot, but I enjoyed that experience. That NXT experience was a first-time for me. I studied so hard. That type of opportunity is only in WWE. I learned American, WWE style at the Performance Center. It wasn’t humbling, because I was too busy enjoying the moment.”

On His Goals In WWE: “My purpose is to make the United States title like I did the Intercontinental championship in New Japan. I want to make the title different. I want to wrestle a lot of different kinds of wrestlers for the U.S. title. I love wrestling and I love telling a story to the audience. I’m always looking for something new, even small things. My wrestling style changes, but I try to control the audience. I want to give energy to the audience, and the audience gives me energy. I love that back-and-forth. I really love what I’m doing.”

On His Influences: “Wrestling is a universal language. The moves, the facial expressions, most people understand. So I tried to find my own character. For me, I like to be different. I didn’t want to imitate another wrestler. I always try to find something from other genres, like movies, books, art, and musicals. That’s how I made my style.”

On His Inclusion In WWE 2K19: “It’s awesome to be part of a wrestling game. When I was a fan, I dreamed about stuff this like. When I was a kid, I loved Nintendo. I played all kinds of wrestling games, especially Fire Pro. Now the graphics are very, very realistic. AJ is the best at video games. For me, the controllers for Xbox and PS4 are too complicated, so I prefer to play CPU vs. CPU. It’s like watching a TV show.”

Shinsuke Nakamura On Okada & Tanahashi: “Okada is really, really good. I feel sympathy with AJ Styles and Tanahashi with the way they wrestle. They are all great wrestlers.”