Top NJPW Star Reacts To Shinsuke Nakamura NOAH Announcement

WWE

WWE opened up it’s Forbidden Door earlier today, when it was announced that SmackDown star Shinsuke Nakamura would be returning to Pro Wrestling NOAH for the first time in a decade.

Nakamura will take on the Great Muta at the NOAH New Year’s Show on January 1, 2023, marking the King of Strong Style’s first match for the promotion since 2013.

Nakamura famously wrestled for New Japan Pro Wrestling prior to his WWE arrival back in 2016, where he was famed as one of the promotion’s greatest ever Intercontinental Champions.

The IWGP Intercontinental Championship was merged with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship back at Wrestle Kingdom 14, when Tetsuya Naito captured both titles in the main event of night two against Kazuchika Okada. The two separate titles were merged into the current IWGP World Heavyweight Championship back on March 4, 2021 by then-champion Kota Ibushi.

Naito is currently the challenger for Will Ospreay’s IWGP United States Championship, earning the right to face Ospreay following his victory over Zack Sabre Jr at NJPW Royal Quest Night Two.

Will Ospreay took to Twitter to react to Nakamura’s NOAH match, blaming the fact that he won’t be returning to NJPW on his current rival’s ‘greediness’ at merging the titles.

He said:

Shinsuke is so mad that the international title is gone, he went to NOAH instead of New Japan. Everybody blame Naito for being a greedy twat for starting this bulls**t.

Sorry “intercontinental” got too excited didn’t read the tweet. Naito is a twat though

Nakamura recently competed as the mystery tag team partner for Hit Row on this week’s SmackDown, where they teamed to defeat Legado Del Fantasma.

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• Tetsuya Naito
• Shinsuke Nakamura
• NJPW
• Will Ospreay

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