WWE News: Why Shinsuke Nakamura chose to challenge AJ Styles and not Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34

Enter captio
Shinsuke Nakamura won this year's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Roman Reigns

What's the story?

During a recent interview with ESPN, Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura spoke about a range of topics including why he chose to challenge AJ Styles and not Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34.

In case you didn't know...

Nakamura made his main roster debut on the SmackDown after WrestleMania 33 and became an integral part of the blue brand in no time At the recently-held Royal Rumble PPV, he won the prestigious 30-man Royal Rumble match by last eliminating the ‘Big Dog’ Roman Reigns and earned the right to challenge either Universal Champion Brock Lesnar or WWE Champion AJ Styles for their title at the ‘Showcase of the Immortals’.

Almost immediately thereafter, Nakamura confirmed that he would be challenging the ‘Phenomenal One’ for his title and this created quite a buzz in the WWE Universe.

The heart of the matter

While speaking to ESPN, Nakamura said that he chose to challenge Styles, as the ‘Phenomenal One’ vs 'The Artist’ is the match that the WWE Universe really wants to see.

“I have experience wrestling Brock (Lesnar) and AJ, but I really think the people and the audience around the world want to see AJ and me. That's the match everyone wants to see."

Besides this, he also spoke about his time in NXT and said that he really did not need to make any adjustments to his working style, as the fans reacted to his work well. He went on to add that it did take him a while to get a hang of things after being called up to the SmackDown roster, but now he feels ‘at home’.

What's next?

WrestleMania season is well and truly upon us and one can expect the Styles-Nakamura feud to pick up steam in the coming weeks.

Author's take

Styles and Nakamura are veterans in their own right and their matches in NJPW were top-notch. As such, we can expect them to put on a truly intense match at WrestleMania 34 and leave fans asking for more. All in all, Styles vs Nakamura is indeed 'best for business'.

Quick Links