SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
The one constant in all of WWE programming is that there will always be feuds. Sometimes over titles, sometimes over prestige and sometimes over coffee. Here, we celebrate the highs and lows of WWE feudage and, hopefully, will only ever focus on a feud once.
I’m Tom Colohue and this is Focus Your Feud.
Follow Tom Colohue at @Colohue for updates.
A.J. Styles vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Going into WrestleMania this was a feud with little heat, not much spark and not a lot of attention. Coming out of WrestleMania this might be the hottest feud of either man’s WWE career.
With Roman vs. Lesnar on cool down due to lack of Lesnar, Owens and Zayn on a different brand and Charlotte vs. Asuka firmly settled in favour of the former, WWE champion A.J. Styles vs. challenger Shinsuke Nakamura has taken center stage, to the point that their match at the upcoming Greatest Royal Rumble is the only announced match that does not feature cross brand talent.
In many ways their WrestleMania match, and the feud beforehand, disappointed. Nakamura’s Rumble win was followed by a period of time in which he was only on TV inconsistently, and if not for the push of Rusev there might not even have been a Fast Lane match for Shinsuke. Meanwhile, A.J. Styles defended his hard won WWE title against all comers, including repeatedly against Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn but this time also against Corbin, Ziggler, and Cena.
Their actual feud was about respect, playing out similarly to the Hart vs. Michaels rivalry in the build up to WrestleMania 12 before the two started to hate each other. After WrestleMania though, when their match disappointed a large portion of their audience, things really kicked into gear.
You see, pre mania there wasn’t all that much to Nakamura. His matches with Ziggler, Corbin and Owens had been good matches but we were promised a game changer with Nakamura. His match with Rusev was solid and intense but a hot crowd contributed heavily in making that a success. Nakamura was floundering. If he hadn’t won the Royal Rumble he would have gone from positive to negative momentum in no time.
A heel turn, and the decision to turn all his hatred against A.J. Styles’s testicles, really made a difference. His reasons are entirely unknown. Does he believe that Styles has enough children already? Does he dislike Styles’s tattoo of all of the dates that his children were born? Is he just particularly averse to the idea of anyone other than him having a penis with which to use? Who knows? That’s what makes this so special.
Real emotion is beyond description. Worry not about my words, you will see my actions and feel the vibe.
I will continue to express my art. Always. pic.twitter.com/Uc5MU3xTFl— Shinsuke Nakamura (@ShinsukeN) April 11, 2018
This feud is almost Shakespearean. In Othello, the primary villain of the piece, Iago, goes to jail and thus his grave without ever revealing his motives. Nakamura is in the same position, offering only false promises and refusal. Renee Young has played a large part in simple reactionary exasperation.
Meanwhile, Nakamura has come alive on Twitter, using his newfound inability to speak English to mock the world. He is both the standard, stereotypical foreign heel and the antithesis of the same. He is the old classic while at the same time something very new.
Against a fan favorite and the pinnacle of competition in A.J. Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura has delivered something fresh and enthralling. As Nakamura, the real star of the show, continues to grip the audience, this feud is hotter than ever before. The dream match has become a nightmare.
Or, after being accidentally branded Shinsuke “Snickers” Nakamura, he’s just turned into a right diva because he’s hungry.
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