Is Big Match Shin back? The Men's Royal Rumble in review

The 2018 Men's Royal Rumble may have come on only an hour into the 240 minute broadcast, but it marked another sea change in WWE booking. After four straight years of WWE's "chosen" winning the title and getting rained by boos in the aftermath, an indie darling finally rose to take the victory in the first match on the road to Wrestlemania. In the process, he became the first (but not the last) Japanese talent to win a Royal Rumble.

Image credit: WWE.com. 

Shinsuke Nakamura certainly isn't a stranger to big matches. He spent a decade near or at the top of New Japan before he jumped to WWE. He was an instant main eventer in NXT and headlined against Jinder Mahal for the WWE title. But while Shinsuke was a world class competitor during his days in Japan, that Nakamura has been largely nonexistent in WWE. His first match in NXT was nothing short of epic. That battle with Sami Zayn earned the "Fight Forever" chant that came with it. But even as he won the NXT title and defended it in a brutal feud with Samoa Joe, he never quite showed the fighting spirit he showed at so many big New Japan events.

Of course, that Nakamura was mostly an illusion. Although Nakamura always had grand entrances, he frequently didn't push himself in all but the most important matches. That is not to say he ever just phoned in a match, but he only brought the intensity he was frequently known for part time. Even in the middle of huge feuds, he likely only showed intensity for two to three minutes in the many multi-man matches NJPW used to build to feuds.

I have long believed WWE could learn a lot from New Japan's booking strategy. Factions and a lot more six and eight man tags would help protect a lot of their feuds for bigger shows. Nakamura clearly preferred that style of operation as his intensity on television and even at many pay-per-views often seemed a shadow of his New Japan times. It was very strange to hear him called the King of Strong Style when he often showed little of the fighting spirit that defines the puroresu style.

The 2018 version of the Royal Rumble started out with a crowd hot for Finn Balor and Rusev. It kept its fire through multiple appearances and multiple eliminations. But when number fourteen hit the ring, business clearly picked up. With Finn already on fire, he and Shinsuke quickly lit up the crowd.

But Shinsuke and Finn's profile remained just one of many. The ring stayed full for much of the Rumble, but after the elimination of the #30 entry Dolph Ziggler by Finn, business picked up in the match. The final six were clearly split into two camps: the young guns of Roman Reigns, Nakamura and Balor versus the veterans John Cena, Randy Orton and the returning Rey Mysterio. But unlike previous years, the veterans met with trouble. Mysterio and Orton were both soon eliminated, and then there were four.

The intensity of those final four were palpable. Cena and Reigns stood against the Japanese imports Balor and Nakamura. The chosen ones stood against a pair of stars honed anywhere but in WWE. Despite a half hour in the ring, Nakamura had only eliminated one man: his old foe Sami Zayn.

But strong style made its comeback at the end of the match. Nakamura showed all the fire of his most famous confrontations as he stood up to the two men WWE put more money behind than anyone else in the last fifteen years. And in the space of ten minutes, he sent both John Cena and Roman Reigns hurling over the top rope.

Many fans assume the much desired AJ Styles / Shinsuke Nakamura rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 10. But I would rather see a rematch from a much earlier match, one from 2006 at a New Japan event called Toukon Shidou Chapter I. At that show, the defending IWGP Heavyweight champion was a man named Brock Lesnar and his opponent was a man searching to reclaim that belt, then a "super rookie". Shinsuke came up short against "The Beast" but I'm sure I'm not the only one that would love to see a Kinshasa delivered to the skull of the current WWE Universal Champion.


If WWE can continue the stride from their current booking and help Shinsuke rebuild the big match feel he carried so well in New Japan, they could restore the mystique he built in his classic confrontations with Tanahashi, Okada and Goto. WWE is currently overflowing with talents he could bring that same magical fire against. We saw it against Zayn and to a lesser extent in his main roster debut against Dolph Ziggler. But there's also talents like Finn Balor, Seth Rollins and Cesaro on the roster, as well as folks like Adam Cole, Aleister Black and Andrade "Cien" Almas (a man that once beat Nakamura for his IWGP Intercontinental title) waiting for a call up from NXT.

Whatever the case, the Royal Rumble this year stood out as one of the best in the company's history. With the right strategy, they could build a Wrestlemania in New Orleans like none other. Whatever the case, Shinsuke Nakamura looks to be a huge part of the future of WWE. Here's hoping the big matches for the King of Strong Style are here to stay.

The Royal Rumble in review

WWE knew from the get go that this year was built around the main event even more than previous years. With nearly an hour and fifteen minutes devoted to the Royal Rumble itself, the other matches were treated more like lead up than anything else. Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose put on a compelling Last Man Standing match while Kalisto shocked Alberto Del Rio yet again to become a two time United States champion. The New Day pulled out a win over the Usos while Ric Flair's interference yet again allowed Charlotte to beat Becky Lynch. In fact, the only really interesting thing to happen on the undercard was the return of Sasha Banks to absolutely brutalize Charlotte post-match.

This was a beautiful thing to see after the Divas match.
Image credit: WWE.com.

But the story of the night was really all about the Rumble. With Roman Reigns in at number one and defending his WWE World Heavyweight title in the process, he had everything to lose against 29 other men. But after eliminating the #2 entrant Rusev, Reigns got his first big surprise of the night in the form of a man rumored to make his WWE debut for weeks now: AJ Styles.

Image credit: WWE.com. 

Styles wasn't the only surprise of the night however. While he was eliminated a bit earlier than one might expect, by none other than Kevin Owens (who awesomely mocked Styles' pose after the throw out), Owens had his own run ins after already taking a beating in the Last Man Standing match that kicked off the show. First Dean Ambrose followed immediately after his entry, then Sami Zayn made his return to the WWE roster to eliminate his rival from a shot at the WWE title.

The League of Nations attacked Roman Reigns mid-match in perhaps the dumbest mugging in the history of professional wrestling. They brutalized him three on one and put him through a table, but they didn't roll him back in the ring to be eliminated. Instead they let him walk to the back where he could rest up and recoup for the end of the event.

The combined Wyatt Family were not as foolish though. After Braun Strowman single handedly eliminated both Big Show and Kane, he ran head long into a Beast Incarnate. Brock Lesnar eliminated Strowman, Erick Rowan and Luke Harper before Bray Wyatt could even reach the ring, but he couldn't stop them from returning for a four on one beatdown. Even Lesnar couldn't take down the entire unit, who eliminated him en masse. Conveniently, his elimination also allowed both him and Reigns to never share the ring for even a second, sparing a future main event match.

To no one's surprise, the final surprise entrant was #30: Triple H. He followed #29 Sheamus, a man that was jumped by Roman Reigns on his return to the match. After Triple H entered, Dolph Ziggler was quickly thrown from the ring. With Sheamus still out, he tried to form an alliance with Wyatt, but the cult leader turned on the face of The Authority. Wyatt and Jericho wouldn't last much longer, but after Reigns dumps a returning Sheamus, Triple H grabs him from behind to dump him from the ring and eliminate Reigns' chance to retain his title.

It was down to two men: Dean Ambrose and Triple H. And if anyone has ever watched WWE, only one option for victory remained. Triple H eliminated Ambrose to become a fourteen time WWE World Heavyweight champion.

Image credit: WWE.com. 

While the end wasn't a surprise, the Rumble did accomplish a few things: it gave us a reason to root for Reigns come Wrestlemania as he challenges Triple H. It creates a compelling story to give us reason to watch Wyatt versus Lesnar. The situation between Owens and Zayn also sets up a potential match. Overall, this wasn't the best Royal Rumble ever, but it was far far from the worst. Fans didn't go away with the hatred and disappointment they were left with in 2014 and 2015, plus they were given reason to be intrigued by the road to Wrestlemania.

The Rumble is coming

Look, a billion sites are going to give you a billion numbers about a billion different Royal Rumble facts. I'm not one of those sites. I would rather focus on the matches and what they might mean for the upcoming Wrestlemania season.

The show is always built around one match, but this year that match is even more the focus than ever before. In fact up until the last few days, the 30 man Royal Rumble was the only match on the card. The last few weeks of WWE storytelling have been built around Roman Reigns and his battle with the Authority. Vince McMahon, back on television after nearly five years of irregular appearances, changed the match to put the WWE World Heavyweight title on the line for only the second time in the history of the Rumble event. In addition, it will be the first time anyone has ever defended the title in the Rumble, something WWE has reminded fans of about twenty times per broadcast since the announcement.

While I personally think making the Rumble for the belt isn't the best idea as I would argue that the Rumble is slightly more important than the belt as it is about a main event spot for Wrestlemania for the title, this does create an interesting dynamic. Roman Reigns enters at at the number one spot and has to make it all the way through the match to retain. Now I suppose it is possible WWE will over-push Reigns to the point he makes it through all 29 other men and the Authority's machinations to retain the belt, but I suspect they instead will set up Reigns' Wrestlemania opponent (likely Triple H) with an elimination somewhere mid-match. This could then set up Brock Lesnar to take a long path towards the title only to also be screwed by the eventual winner. Who that winner will be remains more open than in previous years however. Names like Sheamus, Bray Wyatt, Chris Jericho and Dolph Ziggler are already entered, plus with the rumors of an AJ Styles appearance and the always real possibility of a Daniel Bryan return, more potential star spots are opening. With a roster heavily depleted by injury, WWE could take this as a chance to set up a new main event for Brock Lesnar at the biggest show of the year.

The rest of the card is filled out with title matches, a move WWE rarely makes for the Rumble cards. I personally think the Royal Rumble should only ever feature title matches and the Rumble because anyone not trying for another belt should be less concerned with petty rivalries than trying to get their chance at the big prize. Unfortunately, most of those matches are rehashes of previous battles we have seen over recent weeks. Becky Lynch gets another chance at Charlotte's Divas title, Kalisto gets a chance to beat Alberto Del Rio for the US title again, and Kevin Owens challenges Dean Ambrose again in a Last Man Standing match. The Usos and The New Day have been in matches against each other as well, although I believe this is the first time they have wrestled in a 2 on 2 title match.

In fact, the only other match with any bit of intrigue is actually the pre-show match where four teams wrestle for a chance to appear in the Royal Rumble. The Dudley Boyz seem like the immediate favorite over The Ascension and the unit of Mark Henry and Jack Swagger, but I am holding out hope that the completely thrown together unit of Darren Young and Damien Sandow pick up the win. Sandow has been gone from television for too long and a good showing in the Rumble would be a great way to reinvigorate his character and hopefully start a good push for one of the roster's most under-utilized stars.

Honestly, I am just happy to be excited about a Rumble match for the first time in quite awhile. The last two years have been woeful disappointments, something WWE has to know. For that reason, I suspect the Rumble to open up several new storylines for what may be the strangest major event in WWE history: Wrestlemania 32.

A few thoughts on the possible NJPW migration

Nearly half these men could be in WWE by the end of February.

While I was focused on the Top 10 wrestlers of 2015, news came out that WWE had started a raid on New Japan Pro Wrestling's talent pool. AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows of the Bullet Club were in WWE's sights as a future main eventer on the main roster and a new tag team in NXT respectively. Perhaps a bit more surprisingly, Shinsuke Nakamura was also in the WWE rumor mill, as the Japanese star was planned as a possible surprise entry in the Royal Rumble match.

The amount of Shinsuke fan art is
kind of crazy.

I didn't see it as quite as big a surprise. When Nakamura first planned to go on his international excursion (a regular path growing New Japan stars take before securing an upper card spot on the card), rumors of WWE interest were already around. Of course, unlike most rookies that had barely been given a spot above openers, at this point Nakamura was already an IWGP Heavyweight champion, albeit one with an incredibly short time with the belt. But his excursion proved far shorter than most (though he did train with then-IWGP Brock Lesnar for a short period of time) and he returned to New Japan without any visits to the United States.

In the time since Daniel Bryan's first WWE title reign, he made it clear though that Shinsuke Nakamura would be a dream opponent of his. WWE even published articles about it, even as NJPW stars became better known in the United States thanks to Ring of Honor appearances and later NJPW on AXS. While most people didn't think Nakamura would hop from his home promotion to WWE—a company with a poor history using Japanese stars—his position as the endless second tier champion made it clear he was never to return to his position as ace for the company, having been supplanted by first Hiroshi Tanahashi and now Kazuchika Okada. With his natural charisma and physical style, he seemed a sure fit for WWE should he stay healthy.

And as Royal Rumble looms this Sunday, chances are strong that at least one of the four stars will make his debut at or right after the event. AJ Styles has apparently already wrapped his contract with the company, Nakamura has been stripped of his Intercontinental title and is using the current CMLL crossover cards as a farewell tour. Anderson and Gallows may last a little longer as though Gallows contract is currently up, Anderson is contracted through February. They could end up with one last shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team belts before exiting the Bullet Club and NJPW.

Of course, only Nakamura and Gallows have officially announced plans to leave New Japan, and neither have made a WWE signing a 100% sure thing. If and when any of these men make their WWE debut though, expect big things from them. They have proven time and again they have every tool in the world to put on great matches time after time after time.