Nak 5.16: The Hot Take

[Derek]

You’re listening to the Voices of Wrestling podcast. This is internationally acclaimed broadcast journalist, the King of Banter Joe Lanza. Rich is not here, he is out with the wife, buying curtains or whatever it is married people do. Once again, it is clear who really cares about you and this show. Joe Lanza is here, week in and week out, he never ditches you to go look at kitchen fixtures and drink Jamba Juices in matching sweaters. As Zack Ryder said while they were murdering his heat in the E, broskis before hoeskis. Feel free to hit Rich on the Twittermachine and Emailbox to let him know how disappointed we all are in him.

No, in reality, there was a family emergency; Rich is legitimately unable to record today and we didn’t want to postpone. I just got a text from him that it appears that everything will turn out okay, I’ll leave it up to him what other details he wants to give next week, but he let me know what was going on and I told him to go handle it and let me hold down the fort again. And I know you people love these shows the best, when you get to hear whatever random crap comes off of my dome without Rich here to interrupt my brilliance, so keep an eye out for more Lanza Unfiltered, we have some more episodes of that coming down the pike very soon. Have to get in my first cheap plug, more to come I’m sure.

Off the top, I want to address something that I have still been catching flack for. Never let it be said that Joe Lanza does not know when to admit that he was wrong, and in this case I think I may have been wrong. Back in March, I came on to this very show, sat in front of this very microphone, and I said Shinsuke Nakamura was dead on arrival at EBWF. Rich tried to talk me off the ledge, but I was certain that we had another foreign star being lost in translation on his arrival to an American company, that EBWF was Sin Cara-ing the man. And look, I made my reasons for that opinion known. If you looked at the beginning of his run in a bubble, it looked for all the world like they were playing the game where you bring in a big name just to build up everyone else’s resume. You saw a Japanese main eventer losing to a borderline-comedic midcard act, which at the time drove me insane.

But here’s the thing. I’m just one man, and as smart as I am, over at EBWF you have a whole mess of people who are all smarter than me. Team Ikeda did something I never would have given them credit for, something no other major company in America seems to do; they trusted their audience. I don’t know if the idea came from the Ikeda family, or from Jim Ross or Paul Heyman, or Chris Jericho, or maybe even one of the last great ideas from the late Joanie Laurer, but someone over there knew that their crowd would get behind a weird samurai without having to give him the first title belt that came along. Carlito needed to get that Breakout Championship to establish himself after years of underachieving. That strap would hold Nakamura back, EBWF knew that when I did not. Instead they have just let him be himself, and given him opportunities to get over in the ring, and it has worked like gangbusters, to the point where he is already getting among the top three pops of the night every show. He is over enough to main event Warfare already, and he’s throwing out four snowflakes without even breaking a sweat. Last week we had Nakamura versus AJ Styles on free television. FREE TELEVISION! What kind of age are we living in right now?

So I see why they held off on putting a title belt on the man just yet, but now they’ve announced that he is in one of the first qualifying matches for the King of the Ring. They told us this will be the biggest King of the Ring tournament ever, and they prove it by putting qualifiers out there before the May pay per view card is even filled. How prestigious does that make this tournament feel, huh? Letting free agents come in to expand the field, and starting to fill the brackets two months ahead, it feels like a big deal, and I can’t help but think that maybe this is what they were saving Nakamura for. It just makes the most sense in the world, doesn’t it? The King of the Ring, the King of Strong Style. We already know he looks good in a crown from his Kingdom 9 entrance.

So he’s in a qualifier against Chuck Taylor, which may be the most random matchup I have ever heard. Chuck Taylor coming out of fake retirement for this tournament, definitely the biggest thing he has ever been a part of in his career. And…look. I’m not going to say Chuck Taylor is a bad wrestler. He is very entertaining, he knows how to work the intimate crowds that he is used to wrestling in front of, and he has a good grasp of that Southern psychology. But we have seen acts that work in front of VFW crowds die a death when put in an arena. He may very well get drowned out when you place him in the middle of that ring with all those lights and all those people, and if Chuck Taylor doesn’t have his antics, he has to rely on his wrestling, and when you’re facing down Shinsuke Nakamura of all people, your wrestling has to be A-1, top notch, world class, and Taylor might just not be at that level, especially since he has all but disappeared from the independent scene over the past year. How sharp is he going to be?

Taylor may have a long-term contract, in which case I am certainly happy to see him in the company. But on this night, he is out of his depths. This tournament is Nakamura’s to lose, and I just cannot see that happening to Chuck Taylor. Hey, if his antics start to click with the live crowd and Nakamura can play off of him, we will see a very entertaining match. But this will not be another appearance from Five Star General Shinsuke, I am sorry to report. This is going to be a lion toying with a mouse before putting it out of its misery. To paraphrase the cover of an old X-Men comic I used to own, welcome to EBWF, Chuck Taylor, hope you survive the experience.