Shinsuke Nakamura on Winning the Royal Rumble, NXT, and AJ Styles

ESPN held a recent interview with Shinsuke Nakamura discussing his victory at the Royal Rumble, his career in NXT, and facing AJ Styles at Wrestlemania 34.

On the topic of winning the Royal Rumble match, Nakamura stated he considers the victory to be the biggest moment of his career so far. He also stated his upcoming WWE Championship match at Wrestlemania 34 will topple it as his new biggest moment.

“I believe this is the biggest thing to happen in my career so far. That’s until WrestleMania this year which will be the biggest thing in my life.

I really felt the people behind me. You had (John) Cena, Roman, Randy (Orton), the biggest stars in the WWE and I feel like I’m a new guy, but the WWE Universe really supported me.”

On the topic of his career in NXT, Nakamura stated he had a lot easier time adjusting in NXT than in Smackdown. He mentioned it was due to the differences in the crowds and just needing to wrestle in order to win over crowds in NXT.

“When I came to NXT, I didn’t need to adjust. NXT fans are hardcore wrestling fans. I just had to wrestle and they reacted but when I got called up to SmackDown it was different. There’s just a difference in the live events. So last year I had to make an adjustment from NXT to SmackDown like others have done from NXT to Raw. It takes time to adjust but today I finally feel like I’m there. I feel at home. It’s hard to choose the words even if I was speaking Japanese. It’s hard to find the words.”

On the topic of facing AJ Styles for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania 34, Nakamura stated one of the main reasons he signed with the WWE was to main event a Wrestlemania. He also stated a match with AJ Styles is something the fans have wanted to see since both arrived in the company.

“One of the reasons to come to the WWE was to wrestle at WrestleMania, but to main-event WrestleMania? Wow! I live for this. I have experience wrestling Brock (Lesnar) and AJ, but I really think the people and the audience around the world want to see AJ and me. That’s the match everyone wants to see.”