WWE Wrestlemania XXXIV- World Championship: AJ Styles(c) VS Shinsuke Nakamura

[That N Word]

WWE Champion AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
The stage is set for WWE Champion AJ Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania

AJ Styles hinted on Twitter that this could very well close the show, but I doubt it. Anyways, speaking of money rematches years in the making, this is billed billed as "The Dream Match." This will undoubtedly steal the show, it's pretty much guaranteed. This match however is very unpredictable. Part of me sees Nakamura winning to get his "WrestleMania moment." The other part see's AJ winning to get his. The question is, do we let Nakamura, who can barely even speak English hold the WWE Title. Is he talented enough to do so? Yeah, maybe, but it takes more than just "charisma" and being able to wrestle to do so. He desperately needs a manager, maybe even make him a silent assassin. His facial expressions and horrid mic work, caused from his language barrier will eventually make fans turn on him.

 

[Vintage Punk]

I agree about having some sort of advocate or manager for him as it is hard to understand and won't translate well. I think this won't close the show either as I believe it will be Lesnar vs Reigns or the rumored Cena vs Taker. Damn shame because if it is wrestling alone, these guys totally will outshine those other matches. However, they need to build AJ vs Shinsuke better. I know the match is a dream match and kind of sells itself but they gotta get some storyline involved and please don't team these guys together like they always seem to do when there is two "face" wrestlers going against each other.

 

[legendkiller1979]

Allow me to quote Jesse the body Ventura. "This is truly what the word main event is for. It don't get no bigger." This match should be off the charts good. I can't remember the last time I was this excited to watch a match. I personally can not wait.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

The booking of this match depends on how healthy A.J styles is on that day. If he's 100%, then I'm sure we will get a classic but if he's not ready in time for mania, I wouldn't be surprise if we see a quick squash match to take the title off A.J.

In a way, I really hope that A.J can be cleared in time for mania because for a lot of fans, this is the match of they are the most excited for and it would be a shame to have to scrap this match because of A.J's injury.

 

[thebarber]

This match should go on last, but they treat the wrestlers so poorly that it will probably open the show ffs.

 

[BigDaddyKewl]

I'm not the biggest Nakumara fan but I do hope this match elevates him and he starts to live up to the hype. AJs the best worker in the business and it should be a great match and a pleaser for the smart crowed.
I think Nakumara should go over and I hope they give him a run with the title. Nakumara is somebody the WWE has invested a great deal into and it will probably be a good PR move to have the first Asian ever to hold WWE title. It will definitely help them draw in some international markets. It's going to be a challenge with Nakumara in main event storylines being he doesn't speak English well but I think they should still give him the ball. If Nakumara flops as champion they're is others that can carry the title like AJ, Orton, Jinder, KO etc.

 

[Elchicano15]

This is going to be match of the night even if AJ is still in pain. It's what makes him phenomenal. Please WWE Don't make this the opener. It's sad how this title plays second fiddle to the Universal Title. In a perfect world this should close the show or at least go on after Roman and Brock because I believe Ronda/Authority will end the show or perhaps Taker/Cena. All that aside Nakamura for the win so AJ can heal whatever injuries he might have.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

So the question coming out of this match is why they decided to turn nakamura heel. This made no sense in my opinion but It got me interested in seeing smackdown on Tuesday.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

Because they need to position Bryan to be able to have a title match... Nakamura is someone who takes the title from Bryan for nuclear heat, after he wins it from AJ. Nakamura wins MITB and cashes in...calling it now.

 

[GOOZEKING]

Looking back it kind of makes sense that after losing their only 2 heels on the roster that someone would have to go heel. I mean I was hoping for heel Roode or Orton but hey I like common sense. Let’s see if Nakamura can succeed as a heel, I mean it worked for Neville, Usos, and Sami.

 

[OYDK]

This match was really not that bad. It didn't live up to the hype (and it was never going to) and I admittedly did expect more from them, but at the end of the day, had you put Shin/AJ second and Charlotte/Asuka next to last, I feel like the reception for the matches would have been switched. By the time the WWE title match came around, people had already seen numerous great matches, the fans were burnt out, and AJ/Nakamura pretty much had to deal with the expectation that they were going to do something infinitely better than what we had already seen, which was pretty much just not possible in 20 minutes.

As for the Nak heel turn, I'm very surprised but it might be what he needs. They absolutely need to let him use the stiff, strong-style offense he was known for in Japan. Just let him be as vicious as he was last night and he should be fine. Also, a manager might help him out until his English improves a bit. It seems that WWE was shockingly ahead of the curve here. Turning Nakamura was the right move as it was a matter of time before the crowd began to lose interest in him after failing to win the WWE title. I'm extremely interested to see where this goes.

 

[Mantis]

The dead crowd made it seem worse than it actually was. It wasn't Savage/Steamboat but it was fine. The finish was cool and the post-match angle has me hopeful that they'll do better next time.

 

[XXJJ]

Very disappointing match. It kind of reminded me of Edge/Jericho or Owens/Jericho were it just didn't live up to all the iwc hype.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

I didn't have any expectation about this match mostly because I didn't see it as a dream match like most of the IWC saw it as. I just saw it as the wwe version of AJ styles facing the wwe version of shinsuke in a wwe style match so since I didn't have any expectation, I found that match enjoyable and quite frankly, I was glad that they didn't do the classic multi false finish match because it help the story being told and made the nakamura heel turn more impactful in the end.

Now I'm interested in nakamura for the first time ever because I never saw what fans saw in him as a babyface.

 

[FromGlasgow]

This match was a huge disapointment for me, It wasn't by any means a bad match but considering the two involved it should have been a match of the year candidate, I was expecting a Steamboat/Savage level wrestlemania match but instead the match was just ok in a fogettable kind of way, For me it wasn't even in the top 5 matches of the night, I didn't think I would be saying this but even the opening Cedric/Mustafa cruiserweight match and two Womens title matches were better.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Very disappointing match. It kind of reminded me of Edge/Jericho or Owens/Jericho were it just didn't live up to all the iwc hype.

I don't know why you consider the hype built by the IWC when WWE was advertisting this as a dream match.

The match was good it wasn't a 5 star match but it did the basics right and delivered a solid 3 to 3 1/2 star match. Plus we got a pretty cool heel turn from it.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

Most disappointing match of the night. This should be a wake up call for Nakamura. As someone who didn't watch Njpw when he was there, I have no clue what is so great about Nakamura. He had one great match in NXT with Zayn. He doesn't have bad matches, but Orton doesn't have bad matches either, or Reigns, or Cena. So what is so great about Shinsuke?

Objectively the match was decent and good. It told a story with Nak's knee. The crowd wasn't so dead during it as people make it out to be. It just wasn't that dream match people were expecting.

I don't know, maybe Nakamura isn't that great after all.

 

[OYDK]

Most disappointing match of the night. This should be a wake up call for Nakamura. As someone who didn't watch Njpw when he was there, I have no clue what is so great about Nakamura. He had one great match in NXT with Zayn. He doesn't have bad matches, but Orton doesn't have bad matches either, or Reigns, or Cena. So what is so great about Shinsuke?

Objectively the match was decent and good. It told a story with Nak's knee. The crowd wasn't so dead during it as people make it out to be. It just wasn't that dream match people were expecting.

I don't know, maybe Nakamura isn't that great after all.

The reason his match with Zayn was so great was because he was fresh out
of Japan and they let him work the style he worked over there. I mean, he was having that caliber of match pretty much every time he stepped in the ring in NJPW. But now he has to work the softer WWE style, and the pacing is much, much different in WWE. He hasn't seemed to adapt that quickly and yeah, it's hurting him. It also doesn't help that he can't really get his point across through a promo because he's difficult to understand and he doesn't speak the language extremely well.

It's not that he's not "that great after all." He's a Japanese wrestler trying to adapt to a completely new style of wrestling in front of a crowd he's rarely worked in front of. Guys like AJ, Owens, and Zayn are much more used to this style than Nakamura is which is why they've caught on much quicker. I'm not saying he's eventually going to catch fire all of the sudden but it's only been a year. People need to give him more time.

 

[Deoxyribonucleic A.C.I.D.]

The reason his match with Zayn was so great was because he was fresh out
of Japan and they let him work the style he worked over there. I mean, he was having that caliber of match pretty much every time he stepped in the ring in NJPW. But now he has to work the softer WWE style, and the pacing is much, much different in WWE. He hasn't seemed to adapt that quickly and yeah, it's hurting him. It also doesn't help that he can't really get his point across through a promo because he's difficult to understand and he doesn't speak the language extremely well.

It's not that he's not "that great after all." He's a Japanese wrestler trying to adapt to a completely new style of wrestling in front of a crowd he's rarely worked in front of. Guys like AJ, Owens, and Zayn are much more used to this style than Nakamura is which is why they've caught on much quicker. I'm not saying he's eventually going to catch fire all of the sudden but it's only been a year. People need to give him more time.

WWE isn't really protecting him either. Everyone expected a 5-star match between him and Ziggler at first but it didn't happen. Ziggler's workrate has decreased a lot over the years.

Then comes Mahal and Nakamura, who couldn't afford to lose or was in a position to put someone over, has to put him over. His match with Cena happened at a SD taping which for me was a mistake and I don't remember anything with his matches with Orton.

He then was the 6th most important person in the Kami-Shane feud. Owens, Zayn, Shane, Bryan and Orton all were treated as more important than him.

Then comes the Rumble victory, but then Nakamura does nothing until Fast Lane.

WWE is definately to blame here. Now they turn him heel because he didn't get over as a babyface. Yeah, no shit Sherlock. How could he get over?

Anyway, WWE ruined Nak's character, but the match at Wrestlemania doesn't have anything to do with that. I have watched matches without knowing the build-up before. This was no different. It didn't connect.

First of all the booking of the match was wrong. This is Wrestlemania. This is the WWE championship. But they wrestled like they were fighting for the US Championship. They did the leg angle. You don't do the leg angle in a match 6 hours into a show. Nobody will care about a slow-psychological match this late. That was on WWE entrirely. Still though, it felt like they didn't give it their all.

IMO, WWE gave them a recipe to work with, but the wrong ingredients.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

Most disappointing match of the night. This should be a wake up call for Nakamura. As someone who didn't watch Njpw when he was there, I have no clue what is so great about Nakamura. He had one great match in NXT with Zayn. He doesn't have bad matches, but Orton doesn't have bad matches either, or Reigns, or Cena. So what is so great about Shinsuke?

Objectively the match was decent and good. It told a story with Nak's knee. The crowd wasn't so dead during it as people make it out to be. It just wasn't that dream match people were expecting.

I don't know, maybe Nakamura isn't that great after all.

I don't watch NJPW my opinion on him is based on his NXT and WWE run. While his main roster run has been underwhelming, still decent, he was great in NXT. His matches with Zayn, Joe, and Roode were all very good to great matches.

Besides his matches he was presented better in NXT. The biggest flaw on Nakamura's ring work, even in NXT, seems to be his ability to sell. Now this was fine in NXT since he was made to look dominant in his matches but in the main roster when he needs to take more offense his lack of selling skills seems to be exposed more.

Nakamura is charismatic but that's because of the swagger he bring to the ring you can't really show that when you need to sell 60% or 70% of the time in a match.