WWE: The infamous history between Brock Lesnar and Shinsuke Nakamura
Last weekend, Brock Lesnar and Shinsuke Nakamura graced a ring together for the first in about 14 years in a “blink and you missed it” moment.
At Royal Rumble 2020, Brock Lesnar entered the annual match as the first entrant. “The Beast ” lasted for a little over 24 minutes and single-handedly eliminated close to half of the participants. One of those competitors was none other than the current WWE Intercontinental Champion, Shinsuke Nakamura.
“The King of Strong Style” was entrant no. 10 and he lasted for a measly 20 seconds. However, the history behind this brief exchange is much more interesting.
Lesnar’s recent conflicts with Kofi Kingston, Big E, Braun Strowman, and Rey Mysterio made for relevant storytelling on Sunday. His storied feud with Nakamura was more of an easter egg.
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To truly understand how crazy it was to see them on opposite sides of the ring again, we must revisit Brock’s brief stint in Japan. In October of 2005, Brock Lesnar debuted with New Japan at Toukon Souzou New Chapter. At the Tokyo Dome, he competed in a triple threat match against Kazuyuki Fujita and Japanese legend, Masahiro Chono.
Lesnar pinned Chono to become the fifth gaijin IWGP Heavyweight Champion, following in the footsteps of Big Van Vader, Salman Hashimikov, Scott Norton, and Bob Sapp.
Fun fact: Brock used the F5 to win the match but couldn’t call it that because WWE trademarked the name. Instead, Lesnar called the finisher The Verdict, which was a cheeky reference to his lawsuit against the company.
Lesnar wrestled in seven matches for New between 2005 and 2006. He held the IWGP title for 280 days and successfully defended it three times. Sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it. His first title defense was against – you guessed it – Shinsuke Nakamura.
Nakamura, who became the youngest IWGP Champion in 2003, lost to the “The Beast Incarnate” in about eight minutes. He spoke candidly about the event in his book King of Strong Style: 1980-2014 last year.
"You had no choice but to do what the company wanted. But then Kazuyuki Fujita refused to accept a match with Brock Lesnar for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship which was scheduled to be the main event. Given your previous track record, you were selected to take his place and be the challenger.“Part of that was luck. But that match was seriously rough. First, Lesnar was saying all this stuff about how he respected New Japan, but it felt to me like that was just for show, that he didn’t really respect the promotion. Like, somewhere, he was looking down on Japanese people. I lost the match, and that was the first time I cried at pro wrestling after a match.”"
Shinsuke later revealed he was upset because he didn’t feel he performed at a level worthy of such a prestigious stage. He also didn’t feel like Lesnar understood the importance of it.
"Why did you cry?“It was the main event at Tokyo Dome. This was a pretty hallowed stage, and I knew I hadn’t fought the way I imagined I would. And there was, like, this temperature difference between me and Lesnar. I didn’t get the sense he had any love for pro wrestling. It felt like he was just doing his job.”"
Brock Lesnar and Shinsuke Nakamura teamed up for a tag match a month later. Then, Lesnar defended the title two more times that year. His last defense was against Giant Bernard, better known as Prince Albert or Lord Tensai.
Later, he refused to return with the belt due to “visa issues.” In reality, Lesnar took the belt back to the US as “an insurance policy” because NJPW didn’t pay him upfront for his last show.
New Japan stripped him of the title and went back to the second generation design as a replacement. The “third belt” that Lesnar kept was reactivated with Inoki Genome Federation. IGF was the brainchild of NJPW founder and the inaugural IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Antonio Inoki.
Lesnar and many other mixed martial artists became champions during Inoki’s final years with New Japan because of his belief in shoot fighters. This philosophy was later coined Inoki-ism. This ideology and his exit from NJPW eventually led to the creation of IGF, a professional wrestling and mixed martial arts promotion.
In June of 2007, Brock Lesnar defended the IWGP title against Kurt Angle in a champion vs. champion match at IGF’s debut event. With the TNA World Heavyweight Championship on the line, Angle forced Lesnar to tap out and became a dual champion.
As an added twist of fate, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi in the following year at Wrestle Kingdom II to kick off his second reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion. After the match, Kurt challenged him to a unification match.
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A month later, everything came full circle when Nakamura became the first Japanese wrestler to beat Angle. Two years after his match with Lesnar, “The King of Strong Style” unified the titles in Ryoguko.
Shinsuke’s win earned the respect of his peers and he went on to become one of the most popular wrestlers in the history of the company. With all of this in mind, it was surreal to see he and Brock Lesnar in a ring together. It’s a shame WWE didn’t do with their brief encounter. One could say it’s a little ironic that it was so uneventful.