10 Best Strong-Style Wrestlers Ever
3. Shinsuke Nakamura
It takes a lot of chutzpah to call yourself the king of anything, but when Shinsuke Nakamura decided he was "The King of Strong Style," it was more than just a statement of pride in his work - it was also a declaration that he was the heir to the legacy of New Japan.
Strong style has always been part of New Japan's mission statement, and for most of this century, Nakamura was the company's most visible practitioner of the style. He and Hiroshi Tanahashi spent years vying to see who would be the company's ace, and while Tanahashi ultimately won, the young man who grew up idolizing Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi was an outlier for New Japan. It was Nakamura who carried the crown of Strong Style with his brutal knee strikes and MMA-inspired offense.
Nakamura's exodus to WWE was huge news, and since joining the company, he's found great success in NXT. If anything, he's actually brought strong style to a wider audience than ever before - if not for his WWE run, I wouldn't be writing this article.