Nakamura appears, doesn’t wrestle at WWE house show in Tokyo
Shinsuke Nakamura made an appearance but wasn’t able to wrestle at WWE’s house show in Tokyo today.
The event at Sumo Hall was built around AJ Styles vs. Nakamura for the WWE Championship, but Nakamura entered with a crutch and told the crowd that he wasn’t able to compete.
Nakamura was injured when he was bit on the left leg by a police dog at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield, California on Monday morning prior to SmackDown’s house show at the venue. United States Champion Jeff Hardy vs. Nakamura was then pulled from this past Tuesday’s SmackDown.
Nakamura was interrupted by Samoa Joe today, who wanted to challenge for the WWE title in his place. The segment led to Joe trying to choke him out, with Styles making the save for Nakamura.
Styles retained his championship against Joe in the main event.
WWE has another house show at Sumo Hall tomorrow, which was scheduled to be headlined by Styles vs. Nakamura vs. Joe vs. Daniel Bryan for the WWE title. Bryan, who was advertised to face Big Cass at today’s show before Cass was released, defeated The Miz instead.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.