8 Reasons Shinsuke Nakamura Is The Perfect 21st Century Wrestler

Nakamura has used a variety of finishing moves throughout his career. His first one was called the Landslide (think Chris Sabin’s Cradle Shock), his next one was a flying armbar (because Inokism), and then he used a move called the Shining Triangle, which was a running Triangle Choke (because why not?) that was meant to demonstrate the pro-submission philosophy of NJPW.

As interesting as those moves are, they don’t come close in terms of awesomeness to his current finisher, the Boma Ye Knee Strike (‘Boma Ye’ meaning ‘Kill Him’ in Lingala). That simple finisher has become one of the most popular and devastating maneuvers in Japan, and many have made comparisons to Randy Orton’s ‘RKO outta nowhere’ phenomenon.

For a wrestler to be successful in the 21st century, they need a finisher that can be easily connected to them, and Nakamura’s Boma Ye and the theatrics around the move fulfill that requirement. By comparison, Nakamura’s rival Tanahashi uses the Frog Splash as his finisher, but that’s a popular maneuver around the world and, as such, it’s not as easily connected to him as the Boma Ye is to Nakamura.

Nakamura has one of the most realistic and painful-looking finishers in wrestling today, and that allows him to blur the lines between pro wrestling and more ‘legitimate’ combat sports while still being one of the most entertaining wrestlers in the world.