10 Unexpected Wrestling Origins That'll Blow Your Mind
3. Shinsuke Nakamura's Rumble In The Jungle Move
It's not just a performer's name that can sometimes be altered in the wake of joining up with a new company.
After agreeing to join WWE in 2016, Shinsuke Nakamura's impactful Bomaye running knee to the face was renamed as the Kinshasa. And it wasn't long until that move earned him NXT Championship gold in his new home.
What you may not have realised, however, is that both of those names are actually references to a rather iconic fight.
You see, "Ali, bo maye" were actually the words chanted at Muhammad Ali and George Forman back when the two collided in the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974. And after Antonio Inoki was given the "bomaye" name by Ali following their own battle, Nakamura soon decided to name his devastating knee that as a tribute to the Japanese wrestling icon (via Pro Wrestling Stories).
However, the fact "bo maye" translates to "kill him" in the Bentu language on Lingala was likely a big reason behind the Bomaye becoming the Kinshasa in WWE, with that name also being linked to the Rumble in the Jungle due to it being the capital city of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) where the event occurred.