Another familiar face to WWE audiences, Nakamura faced off against the Olympic Gold Medallist Kurt Angle in 2008 to unify the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship with the IGF version. This match took place before Nakamura turned into Swagsuke, and for modern fans of the man it is a little jarring to see him without his iconic haircut and electric mannerisms. Despite a slow start, this is exactly the quality of match one would expect from two true technicians of the sport. Angle was a great fit in Japan for a while, and at this time Nakamura was getting a big push with the proverbial jet rocket under his posterior. Some of the sequences in the match are smooth beyond belief. There is one memorable spot where Nakamura transitions into an armbar on Angle, and I'd not seen anything like it at the time. It was smooth, it was fluid, it was beautiful. Even now, seeing that makes me smile a little through how beautiful professional wrestling can be sometimes. To watch the entire 40+ minute match, head to the link below. http://www.veoh.com/watch/v5456764hxdy8CP6
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
