Shinsuke Nakamura had one of the most anticipated in-ring debuts in recent memory at WWE BackLash. With his hard fought victory over Dolph Zigger, Nakamura announced his arrival on the main roster, yet not everyone was impressed with how it went down. On the latest episode of Wade Keller’s PW Torch Livecast, WWE Hall of Famer, Stone Cold’ Steve Austin said he was expecting more from ‘The Artist’s’ debut.
“First of all, let me go on record to say that I respect the ability of both guys in the ring. Dolph Ziggler can work his a** off, as well as Shinsuke. The way the match was presented to me, from what I wanted to see out of Nakamura, the match in of itself had some really nice moments, and nice sequences and exchanges of offense, but I just thought that the sense of urgency and pacing of the match was just too slow of what it needed to accomplish, which is to light Shinsuke’s a** up and let everyone know that he is a player, he is a superstar, he has this charisma, but he’s nothing like Great Muta or Kabuki from back in the day—he can deliver that, he just doesn’t do it enough. A little too much of no sense of urgency in the match and just drawing things out; I was just disappointed in that regard.”
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As for whose fault it was that the match didn’t live up to the hype, Austin says the bottom line is that everyone should have stepped their game up for the Chicago crowd.
“If you look at the match and how it was put together nice match, but I just thought that Dolph needs more malice behind his offense, and the point of Shinsuke, you know what he can do, but he just doesn’t do enough of it. He panders to that crowd; hey, the crowd came for him. After that match was over they gave him a standing ovation, so maybe I am the only guy that thinks this. The Chicago crowd is off the charts 9 times out of 10 was truly appreciative of the effort put forth. Again, I was critical of the match in of itself a good match you can say, but did it accomplish what it needed to in order to light Shinsuke’s a** up? No, and I think that is on him and whoever put that match together.”
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It’s likely WWE didn’t want to be criticized by fans for booking Nakamura in a Goldberg-esque fashion so they overcompensated by wanting showing him work a full-length match. This could have worked if he was facing off with AJ Styles or Kevin Owens, but fans have been conditioned to see Dolph Ziggler as a mid-carder. To have Nakamura need over 10 minutes to put away Ziggler made it feel like he wasn’t quite as big of a deal as they were hoping.
You can listen to the full episode here. h/t to Wrestlezone for the transcript.
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