10 Live Observations From Attending WWE SmackDown Live In Manchester

5. UK Fans Still Love Nakamura's Original Entrance Music

SmackDown Shinsuke Nakamura Sami Zayn
WWE.com

He may be a heel now, he may have only been serving up so-so matches for the majority of his main roster run, and he may have even changed up his entrance theme to include Japanese rapping that purposely makes it harder to sing along to, but UK fans still love nothing more than attempting to sing Shinsuke Nakamura's original WWE theme.

Looking across the Manchester Arena during Nakamura's entrance, and a large percentage of the audience were happily singing away as they did their best to recreate Shinsuke's initial entrance tune that goes back to his NXT days.

The first time that Nakamura was part of a UK tour was back during those NXT years, and seeing Nakamura receiving the same fan response and treatment as he did back then was fantastic to see and brought back some great memories of the Intercontinental Champion's glory days in NXT.

Even if the Nakamura we now see on the main roster doesn't seem half as interested as the Shinsuke we first saw arrive under the WWE umbrella back in 2016, one silver lining is that the UK fans always seem to hold the former NXT Champion up as a big deal as they have all kinds of fun with his entrance.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer and Presenter, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund and Eli Roth to Kevin Smith and the Russo Brothers, to Kevin Conroy and Frank Miller, to Bret Hart and Sting, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, and Brian Flynn, to many, many more. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is a long-standing season ticket holder and an FSA Award-winner for his time co-hosting the Fearless in Devotion podcast.