An English version of Shinsuke Nakamura’s book ‘King of Strong Style: 1980-2014′ is being released next week. A Redditor was able to get their hands on a copy and provided an interesting excerpt about Nakamura and Brock Lesnar.
For those who don’t know, Nakamura and Lesnar faced off in New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) back in 2006. Brock was the IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the time.
Here is an excerpt from the book:
“That match was seriously rough. First, Lesnar was saying all this stuff about how he respected New Japan, but it felt to me like that was just for show, that he didn’t really respect the promotion. Like, somewhere, he was looking down on Japanese people. I lost the match, and that was the first time I cried at pro wrestling after a match.
It was the main event at Tokyo Dome. This was a pretty hallowed stage, and I knew I hadn’t fought the way I imagined I would. And there was, like, this temperature difference between me and Lesnar. I didn’t get the sense he had any love for pro wrestling. It felt like he was just doing his job.
I felt like this was too much; he was seriously scoffing at us. Lesnar won the championship and took the belt home, I told Simon if the company didn’t get it’s shit in order, that belt was definitely going to get nicked. I didn’t honestly believe that when we fought. But it ended up just like I feared. He has the physical stuff, plus a straightforward strength and a certain amount of flexibility, so there was a bit of the monster to him. But I didn’t like his personality, you know? He might have made a real mark in UFC, but he didn’t even seem to notice the audience booing. I was like, oh, this guy’s a heel to the core”
In related news, here is a list of WWE legends who you might not know wrestled for NJPW.