Kenny Omega is happy for Shinsuke Nakamura, but he's not fully impressed with his WWE run so far.
Speaking to Sports Illustrated, Omega says that the right story and the right moment could make him even more compelling. But as of this moment, he hasn't been overly impressed by what he's seen thus far.
“I’m happy for the response that he’s getting, of course, and all of us in New Japan knew when he left that he was going to get over with his charisma” said Omega. “But when I see Nakamura in WWE, it’s hard for me to say he’s done anything compelling in-ring since he’s been there, which is a shame. It will just take the one right story and the one right moment and then people will be captivated by everything that he does. Right now, he hasn’t had that.”
One of the reasons, Omega noted, was that WWE is overbooked to a ridiculous degree, meaning that someone like Nakamura, who had his own style in New Japan, gets lost in translation when trying to do both his and WWE's styles.
“Even to another degree, everything in WWE is super over-booked" he said. "Some people in WWE even need the steps and their footing in the ring choreographed. They have to pace their breathing before they even go through with a match in the ring. When you’re used to dealing with people who need that match management, who need to have that much choreography in their matches before they go out there and perform, then when a guy like Nakamura–who is this new age ‘strong style,’ and a lot of that is based off emotion and feeling and fighting spirit–wrestles someone who needs marks on the ring so that he can get his footing right with a set of instructions, that’s where Nakamura’s style gets lost in translation. Everything starts to come across as soulless, if that makes any sense.”
Nakamura's next big match will be at the Royal Rumble, as he has just announced himself one of the 30 men competing for a WrestleMania title match.
