20 Absolute Best Wrestlers In The World Right Now
16. Katsuhiko Nakajima
A wrestler for 18 years but still only 33, Katsuhiko Nakajima is finally fulfilling the immense potential he has exhibited since he was a teenager, refining every aspect of his act to stand out as GHC Heavyweight Champion (before heinously being knocked-off by Kazuyuki Fujita).
Nakajima is a killer heel. A deliciously sadistic stiff-kicking trashbag of a human being who revels in enacting immense punishment upon the competition, he has finally found a character that ties the rest of his work together. Now that he has this to supplement his ring work, which has always been tremendous, he feels like one of the most complete wrestlers in Japan.
Recent matches with Go Shiozaki and Masa Kitamiya highlight this torture artist as one of the best main event wrestlers around. Sure, the NOAH house style isn't for everybody, but Nakajima's lengthy epics have enough personality, snapping kicks, and thunder to transcend the suboptimal atmosphere at Japanese shows at the moment.
But the scariest thing about Nakajima is that there is still room for him to grow. Sometimes, the character becomes a distraction that gets in the way of the rest of his work, while his closing stretches occasionally lack dynamism (see: the Shiozaki match on 1 January). Should he eventually refine these as he has the rest of his performances, he'll be unstoppable.