Shinsuke Nakamura: “We didn’t clash so much in the ring”. Both men are down in the middle of the ring, when out of the crowd comes Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson.
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“The Phenomenal” AJ Styles, “The King of Strong Style” Shinsuke Nakamura, and the tag team from the Bullet Club, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson are rumored to sign with the sports-entertainment titan, if they haven’t already. Balor and Styles never crossed paths though since the moment Balor left Bullet Club was the time Styles joined the faction.
The former ROH Tag Team Champion has reportedly signed a two-year deal with New Japan. It was assumed WWE would target them for NXT, though, the developmental league that WWE is turning into a full-time touring operation. As a matter of fact, Styles is one of the most popular figures in the independent wrestling industry. Plus the company did exactly that throughout 2015, bringing similarly high profile indie wrestlers into NXT with no apparent intention of promoting them to the main show, from former TNA highlights Samoa Joe and James Storm to well-traveled indie pros Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano.
How cool would it be for AJ Styles to debut at the Royal Rumble, though?
There is no word on when the four will make their appearances and where, but it looks like they will be finishing up their act first at NJPW.
This all but confirms that Styles, Nakamura, Anderson, and Gallows are joining the WWE, because if they weren’t, WWE wouldn’t have said anything about the rumors. Another interesting thing to come out of this is that AJ Styles recently followed Triple H on Twitter. Reigns and Lesnar eventually get to their feet, and stare down Gallows and Anderson outside of the ring. The questions surrounding him involve his age and the mileage he’s put on his body over his 13-year career, but at a time when WWE wants more global superstars, especially in Japan with the rollout of the WWE Network, there may be nobody better to bring in than Nakamura.
Of course, it’s easy to imagine a scenario where Nakamura would be given a mouthpiece to allow him to engage in feuds more easily.
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Nakamura, being one of the Japanese pro wrestling elite, would be a major acquisition in terms of worldwide growth. And if you think that means he’s a midcard guy because of the Intercontinental Championships, just know that on New Japan’s version of Wrestlemania, Wrestle Kingdom 8, the fans voted the IC title as the main event over the Heavyweight Championship, that’s how popular this man made that title. These companies would have to fast track their developing stars to make up for their loss.
