Jim Ross was a guest on Steve Austin's podcast, The Steve Austin Show, and the topic soon turned to Shinsuke Nakamura and the missteps that the WWE has taken with him since his debut on the main roster after WrestleMania. Both men seem to think that a vital injection of AJ Styles is what's needed to re-energize the former NXT Champion.
Ross says that if he was in charge, we'd be getting Nakamura-Styles on the grandest stage of them all.
“I think Shinsuke Nakamura, we haven’t seen his best yet and I think AJ Styles may be as good of a worker as I’ve seen in years. He may be the best worker in the world right now. You felt something in the crowd at Money In The Bank with Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ. The fans that have followed their career know they’ve got a great history. And they had one of the best matches I’ve ever seen with Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ (at New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 10). We haven’t seen that yet in Shinsuke, but that WrestleMania match would be a great wrestling match.”
That would suit Austin just fine, as well.
“I know that Styles is going to bring the best out of Shinsuke because I don’t think, from what I’ve seen, we’ve seen Shinsuke’s best in (WWE). I’m sure he will get the best of that guy. I’m sure they’re great friends from way back or whatever the deal is. But from what I know of AJ, if Shinsuke’s going to really work his ass off, it’s going to be with Styles.”
It's just too bad that, in Austin's opinion, the WWE isn't yet properly utilizing all of Shinsuke's talents.
“You bring him over and he’s going 30-minute broadways with half the damn roster. Debuted down there (at NXT Takeover Dallas), with Sami Zayn, hell of a match. Hell of a match! A lot of credit to Sami Zayn and Shinsuke, but here’s ‘The King Of Strong Style’ and all-of-a-sudden, he comes in and he’s working Dolph (Ziggler) and it took him a long time to finish off Dolph for ‘The King Of Strong Style’. Do you understand where I’m going with this gimmick? That’s booking though. What is the plan? You’ve got this guy who’s one of those talents that just don’t come around every single day. He’s special. He comes in and you treat him like he’s another Joe Blow.”
Well, they don't seem to be treating him like another Joe Blow anymore--he's got a match next week against the most-non-Joe-Blow guy on the roster, John Cena. The Winner will face Jinder Mahal at Summerslam for the WWE Title.
The big question will be how he is booked in that #1 Contender's Match.
You can listen to the entire podcast at this link
