Ranking Shinsuke Nakamura’s 10 Best WWE Matches So Far

3. Vs Samoa Joe (NXT TakeOver: Toronto)

shinsuke nakamura
WWE.com

Shinsuke Nakamura's first televised defeat (and only his second loss from nearly 100 house show matches for the developmental brand) came at the climax of his best match with NXT Title rival Samoa Joe.

Unfazed by the 'Samoan Submission Machine' during their war in the Summer months, Nakamura's Brooklyn victory enraged Joe, leading to a brutal assault using the steel stairs on television that almost saw Shinsuke forced to vacate the title due to the injuries sustained.

The attack lit a fire hitherto unseen in the champion, but it played into his surprising defeat after placing himself in unnecessary danger against his embittered challenger. First battling into the crowd, the two then engaged in a submission war won by Joe, who wore down the unusually rash titleholder.

A late surge of adrenaline from Nakamura proved his final undoing. After fighting from underneath to level Joe with a spectacular german suplex, he missed a high speed Kinshasa attempt and smashed his knee on the turnbuckle. Making contact with a second attempt, Shinsuke was briefly unable to cover, giving Joe valuable recovery time to kick out at two.

A Kinshasa to the back of Joe's head took the fight back to the floor. Showing no mercy, Nakamura lined up another kick, but the challenger shoved the referee out of the way and delivered a crushing low blow.

He followed with the same ring steps uranage that had shelved Nakamura weeks earlier, and a quickfire muscle buster to shockingly dethrone the 'King'.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett