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What’s the Story?
After enduring an incredible amount of punishment and lasting over 40 minutes, Shinsuke Nakamura won the 2018 Royal Rumble Match, last eliminating Roman Reigns.
As Nakamura (and the WWE Universe) were caught up in the celebration, Renee Young asked Nakamura which champion he wanted to challenge. Nakamura wasted little time and officially challenged current WWE Champion A.J. Styles.
In case you didn’t know…
A.J. Styles has been WWE Champion since November 7th, 2017. On that show, which was a live episode of SmackDown emanating from Manchester, England, Styles defeated then-champion Jinder Mahal to claim the most prestigious belt on the blue brand for the second time.
Earlier in the night on the eve of the 2018 Rumble PPV, Styles defeated both Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in a 2-on-1 handicap match to retain the WWE Championship.
Nakamura, meanwhile, debuted on SmackDown on the first episode of SmackDown after WrestleMania 33. Despite something of a rocky start, he has since become one of SmackDown’s top wrestlers.
But the history between these two men goes far beyond that, as both of them were in New Japan Pro Wrestling together up until Wrestle Kingdom X, NJPW’s equivalent to WrestleMania.
At that show, the two of them had a spectacular match together for Nakamura’s IWGP Intercontinental Championship that just screamed ‘dream match’, and set the bar incredibly high for wrestling for 2016.
The heart of the matter
Nakamura won the 2018 Royal Rumble match, last eliminating Roman Reigns. During his celebration, the audience chanted Styles’ name, and Nakamura announced Styles’ name shortly afterwards as his chosen champion to challenge.
This announcement drew a monstrous reaction from the audience, as this is likely to be a spectacular match that is now confirmed for WWE’s biggest show of the year.
What’s Next?
Shinsuke Nakamura will likely be celebrating his monumental victory at least for tonight. Meanwhile, Styles is likely to have at least one more WWE Championship defence sometime between now and WrestleMania.
But as much as some people like to decry WWE for making poor booking decisions, not even they are foolish enough to not see that a match between Nakamura and Styles is a license to print money.
Author’s take
Nakamura’s win was one of the most exciting moments in recent Rumble history, especially given the controversy surrounding both Cena and Reigns. Furthermore, I watched Nakamura face Styles at Wrestle Kingdom X two years ago, and it was a (pardon the pun) phenomenal match.
I for one have high hopes for Styles/Nakamura at WrestleMania 34, and we can expect a truly spectacular match out of these men on that show. Indeed, the Road to WrestleMania has just started on an excellent note.
What makes Sting special? His first AEW opponent opens up RIGHT HERE.
