The WWE Intercontinental Champion goes over his 2021 and what he’s looking forward to in 2022.
Shinsuke Nakamura is in the middle of his second run as WWE Intercontinental Champion. Nakamura bested Apollo Crews in August and has defended the title once since winning it.
Nakamura is also a former five-time IWGP Intercontinental Champion and the topic of New Japan Pro-Wrestling came up during his conversation with Tokyo Sports. In part two of the conversation, Nakamura brought up that 2022 is NJPW’s 50th Anniversary year and he is open to helping them if he can. Nakamura said him wrestling for NJPW might be difficult but if they attempt to negotiate with WWE, it could be possible.
It’s [NJPW’s] 50th anniversary. I hope that there is something I can do to help them through my company.
A match would be… difficult. But if they really try to negotiate… it might be possible, but right now, the situation is such that they are probably going to have to quarantine the [wrestlers] and take [border] measures. The risks are still too high. It would be nice if the situation calmed down and if there was a TV show that invited me outside of [matches] (laughs).
He was asked to share words about Antonio Inoki, who has been candid about his health struggles. Nakamura shared that he recently spoke to Brock Lesnar and Lesnar wanted to know if Inoki was okay.
There was a special feature on a Japanese TV program, wasn’t there? I’m very worried about him. I met Brock Lesnar at Smackdown the other day. He heard about it and asked me if Mr. Inoki is okay. So I shared as much information as I could.
Please let him know, really. Mr. Inoki is a person who always gives off energy, but there are many people around him who love him. There are many people around who love Inoki-san, so I hope you can get some energy from them.
As far as his goals for 2022, Nakamura is hoping to win a world title in WWE. He mentioned that while he’s the Intercontinental Champion, he’s been having more tag matches than singles matches with Rick Boogs by his side.
I’m holding the IC title, but I’ve been working with Boogs so much that I’m having more tag team matches than singles matches. By the way, everyone is working together. It’s like veterans and young guys. Even in NXT, it’s like [Ikemen Jiro] and KUSHIDA. I guess it’s a way to attract young talent and increase opportunities for them to appear on the show together. Anyway, now that I’m in WWE, if I can win one more WWE title, I can achieve the Grand Slam. I’m here in WWE and if I can just win one more title, the WWE World Title, then I can achieve the Grand Slam, so I’m going to try to achieve that.
Shinsuke’s most recent TV match was on the December 10th SmackDown. Next in line to challenge Nakamura for the I.C. Title is Sami Zayn, who won a Battle Royal to earn the opportunity.
