Shinsuke Nakamura explains how fashion and pop culture has played an influence on his career.
Shinsuke Nakamura was a guest on Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette and talked about how he learned English when coming over to the United States. Noting that he used a dictionary and didn’t have technology at the time, Nakamura said he needed to learn because it would help him in the ring.
“I had a dictionary at that time. We didn’t have iPhones [to translate], it was 2002. Wrestling is body communication and wrestling is a universal language,” Nakamura explained, “so when we make matches I need to know the moves. Clotheslines, punches, kicks, Kinshasa, and a lot of friends helped me to speak English.”
Nakamura continued, explaining that Rocky Romero and Bryan Danielson helped him and Lyoto Machida quite a bit, joking that he asked for help so his speaking skills “didn’t suck”. Nakamura has come a long way and speaks fluently, but Paquette asked if he still got nervous today.
“Yes, still. Nowadays they only give me short lines, like a joke I don’t know [the context],” Nakamura said, “because I didn’t grow up in the U.S.”
Paquette brought up the fact that Nakamura still does really well with material and complemented his comedic timing, noting that people loved it.
King in the house. ?? #SmackDown #kingofstrongstyle pic.twitter.com/Bc07SSkT58
— Shinsuke Nakamura (@ShinsukeN) May 18, 2021
Nakamura also spoke about being known as a fashionable man and talked about his fashion influences, including how his sister was a fashion designer and how Michael Jackson was a major influence on him.
“I felt like in his atmosphere he was [comparable] to a master of martial arts. Very calm, no muscles, his movement was like controlling gravity. He’s the fastest guy on stage, the best dancer on stage. Other dancers have huge muscles, but that’s why he’s like a martial arts master.”
Asked if he thought about introducing more color or perhaps face paint to his in-ring wardrobe, Nakamura said red is a lucky color but he did have some white gear made for this year’s WrestleMania event.
“The red color is my lucky color.” Nakamura explained. “[I wear] blue sometimes, I made white for WrestleMania this year but I couldn’t use it. But I try to use other colors now.”
Nakamura did not appear on WrestleMania 37 this year, but instead worked in the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the April 1 “WrestleMania Edition” of SmackDown.
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