On January 4, 2016, in the iconic Tokyo Dome, two prime athletes went to war in a classic wrestling match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. One, a well-established wrestler in North America who had a twelve-year stint in TNA, managed to put on a clinic with a Japanese superstar dubbed "The King of Strong Style."
Their names: AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura. Many wrestling fans called this the best match of 2016, regardless of what others might have said, and the post-match feeling was: could the two of them top their initial encounter?
However, a few weeks later, AJ Styles debuted in WWE at their January Royal Rumble event. Lifelong Styles' fans never thought he'd step in a WWE ring at that point in his career, but after putting on an amazing performance in the Royal Rumble match, many fans stopped pinching themselves. He went on to have a great rivalry with Chris Jericho that started out friendly and ended up bloody. That April, Nakamura was signed to WWE's developmental brand NXT, where he put on an amazing debut performance for the company at their Takeover event in Dallas against Sami Zayn.
As the year went on, Styles went on to win the WWE Championship in the fall, while Nakamura became a two-time NXT Champion and bonafide star of the brand. As the calendar year turned to 2017, though, it was uncertain whether fans like myself would ever see the two of them lock up again. Our prayers would be answered in April once again when Nakamura debuted on Smackdown Live! ...which AJ Styles is also apart of. Throughout the summer, fans were teased with Nakamura and Styles going one-on-one a second time in their careers...this time in a WWE ring.
(Styles and Nakamura stare each other down during the six-man Money In The Bank Ladder Match this past June)
As 2017 came to a close, Nakamura was still left in the mid-card, teaming up with Randy Orton as they faced Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Fans that were still upset over Nakamura's poor booking since joining the Blue Brand were beginning to doubt Nakamura's ability to be a main-eventer. As his stock was somewhat declining, Styles' ended 2017...phenomenally. Defeating Jinder Mahal on a tape delay episode of Smackdown Live! , Styles won his second WWE Championship and gave it his all in a non-title, Champion vs. Champion loss at Survivor Series 2017 against Brock Lesnar. The year certainly did end well for Styles, and the pieces were in place to make 2018 a better year.
Heading into this year's Royal Rumble, many fans speculated that Roman Reigns would win his second Royal Rumble match and go on to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34. However, the underdog Shinsuke Nakamura topped the 'Big Dog' Roman Reigns in a tremendous end to the Royal Rumble match by throwing Reigns over the top rope and win the match. The arena erupted in cheers as Nakamura pointed to WrestleMania and announced that he'd face Styles at the Showcase of Immortals.
Though WrestleMania is still months away, it must be said that there is no way WWE can screw this up if they've been teasing and building anticipation between these two great wrestlers. Styles will be defending his title in a fatal four-way match in a few weeks at Fastlane, yet I am confident Styles will retain and formally set up the road to WrestleMania by staring down Nakamura once again. At the same time, I am confident that Styles-Nakamura will be the closing match of WrestleMania 34---something that Vince McMahon will be proud of when he realizes how much the fans will be anticipating this return match.
There have been some amazing WrestleMania main events that fans have celebrated and called 'the best WrestleMania match of all time': Hogan/Savage; Undertaker/Michaels; Cena/Rock (both WrestleManias); and the most important match in WrestleMania, Austin/Rock at WM17. Now, two years after New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom 10, Styles and Nakamura can take that anticipation from the fans and put on a tremendous match and deliver a dynamite main event match in New Orleans on April 8th.
