During a recent appearance on the Ross Report podcast, Jim Cornette spoke to Jim Ross about Shinsuke Nakamura and how he feels the Japanese wrestling sensation will fare in WWE.
At this point there’s no question as to whether or not Nakamura has the tools to succeed. Besides being a world-class in-ring talent, his charisma is electric and his appeal is undeniable. As somebody who knows talent as well as anybody, Cornette feels that Nakamura’s upside in WWE is more dependent on Vince McMahon’s preferences than Nakamura’s abilities.
“I think it comes down to he will be a superstar in NXT and people are going to love him whenever he appears with that brand,” Cornette said. “And when he gets to the main roster, I’ve got to be honest with you, I think it depends on how Vince sees him.”
He continued, “Obviously, everything [in WWE] depends on how Vince sees something, but he hasn’t had the best track record, and I’ll tell you, it’s not a racist thing with international stars, whether it be luchadores, whether it be Japanese talent, [or] whether it be anybody from Europe. Sometimes, the chairman does not understand what they have meant to their world because he’s so isolated in his and he tries, possibly, to remake them in the image that he perceives for them. That may not work.”
Cornette feels that in certain ways, Nakamura is in the same boat as WWE legends like Steve Austin and Brock Lesnar were – “essentially the more [Nakamura] is himself and he’s allowed to do his thing, the better off he’ll be.”
