Known As: Shinsuke Nakamura
Height: 6 Feet 2 Inches
Weight: ~230lbs
Time in New Japan: 2002-2016
Discipline(s): Pro-Wrestling, Amateur Wrestling, Vale Tudo
Signature Moves: Triangle Choke (often from a flying position), Front Neck Lock, Knees and various striking combinations [these moves are from his early days, Nakamura's move-set lost most of it's vale tudo roots as time went on]
MMA Record: 3-1 (1 No Contest)
Shinsuke Nakamura is known by all in the pro-wrestling world of 2018. A talented high school and college wrestler, Nakamura was already a hit with fans at his debut in late 2002 against Tadao Yasuda. The "Super Rookie" would go on to be the youngest winner of the IWGP Heavyweight title, becoming a mainstay in New Japan throughout the decade and beyond. However, that is not the story I or you frankly are interested in. We are here to explore Nakamura's time in the realm of Vale Tudo; a world that has no forgiveness or regret. People are unaware of how much this time in No Holds Barred fighting colored Nakamura's whole move set and cemented his credibility with fans that he was truly THE SUPER ROOKIE.
THE SUPER ROOKIE DEBUTS AGAINST A GRACIE:
Inoki and the others in the New Japan office saw his immense potential, quickly sending Nakamura off to the Inoki Dojo in Los Angeles to train for the upcoming Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2002 end of the year MMA show. Billed as Inoki vs K-1, the event was at the Saitama Super Arena drawing 35,000+ fans and a 16.5 television rating, making it the most successful of the Inoki promoted MMA events!
Nakamura may be the Super Rookie but he was set to face the "new generation" of Gracie family fighters in Daniel Gracie who was only on his second MMA fight! Shinsuke Nakamura impresses early, dodging a high kick and landing some nice strikes of his own to begin the fight. The quickness of Nakamura's shoot in for a single leg is so incredibly fast, and he is able to bring the young Gracie to the ground. The ref breaks it while Nakamura leaps into the downed Gracie to check a cut, allowing Nakamura to get some mean mugging on. We see how seriously Shinsuke took the idea of Vale Tudo as a discipline as he's looking for downed kicks and stomps whenever Gracie is on the ground. The last bit of round 1 sees Nakamura's stomps get caught in a leglock attempt which after failing allows Gracie to get into mount and lay some punches down onto the Super Rookie.
Round 2 begins with more striking before Nakamura shoots in for a smooth double leg takedown. Shinsuke is a patient fighter, grinding in the guard while looking for opportunities to either jump guard or to create some space while looking to stomp. Sadly, Daniel Gracie is able to quickly slip on an armbar ending Shinsuke Nakamura's first foray into No Holds Barred fighting with defeat. Despite the loss, Nakamura in no way looked weak and his performance here just added to the fans amazement with the skills of the Super Rookie.
IT IS TIME TO PUT THOSE CRUSHING SKILLS TO GOOD USE:
Nakamura had his next MMA bout at the mixed match spectacular called ULTIMATE CRUSH which I have detailed in postings about Josh Barnett, Enson Inoue, and Lyoto Machida previously. A massive card of pro-wrestling and Vale Tudo matches, this functioned as a demonstration of Inoki's total view of the world of combat sports. ULTIMATE CRUSH was Inoki staking the claim of KING OF SPORTS once more, and what better way to do that than have the Super Rookie Shinsuke Nakamura face the almost 7ft giant that is JAN NORTJE!
We see Nakamura in the opening video package detail his training at the INOKI DOJO in Los Angeles, a center for all things VALE TUDO with its eclectic mix of trainers, fighting heritage, and cross-training. Nortje is shown beating our old friend Tadao Yasuda at Bom-Ba-Ye 2002, the very event that Nakamura debuted as a shoot fighter. Nortje comes out decked in furs of a zebra (something I find immensely distasteful, the fucking settler!) and he hurt Yasuda so I am excited to see Nakamura engage in some ULTIMATE CRUSH on his face!
The size difference here is EXTREME and Nortje uses it early to simply hold Nakamura down, but do not fret friends because after avoiding knees to the dome skillfully and then driving Nortje into the corner to gain top position, Nakamura fucking whoops on this dude. Punches, elbows, and grounded knees: Shinsuke Nakamura uses these techniques beautifully, embodying the concept of the New Japan Vale Tudo rules that Inoki had developed for his events. By maintaining the use of elbows, this rule set was more truthful to the truly No Hold Barred origin of mixed fighting and Vale Tudo. Nakamura's skills in amateur wrestling techniques combined with his use of striking on the ground allows him to continue to dominate in round 2. After bloodying the South African giant with slicing elbows in mount, Shinsuke Nakamura lays down the forearm across Nortje's throat forcing the tap. Another kickboxer slain by the forearm choke across the throat, a true right of passage in the world of Inokiism!
DEEP IN THE JUNGLE, NAKAMURA LURKS:
Let us hop on a plane to Brazil because we are returning once more to the first JUNGLE FIGHT! Wallid Ismail, a trainer at the Inoki Dojo that Nakamura learned the ways of Vale Tudo at, founded this event with Antonio Inoki. Now a prominent MMA promotion in Brazil, this company started out with the help of Inoki and his cavalcade of fighters. LOL the English commentators call Nakamura a "legend in Japan" despite him being in the game for like barely a year at this point and Frank Trigg, notorious nonsense MMA commentator (this is confirmed at his recent stint in RIZIN) says that Nakamura has slow takedowns which is LOL as we have now seen his previous fights and know that to be patently false. Did I say I absolutely loathe this guy's horrible commentary? Nakamura is facing Shane Eitner, a man I know nothing about except that he is listed as being from the LA Boxing gym that the McCully's, fellows in Inokiism, ran back in the day (hey Sean McCully is in his corner!).
Shinsuke Nakamura unsurprisingly shoots in and gets the takedown almost immediately. He uses his wrestling ability to maintain control despite Eitner's attempts to buck him off, delighting the large section of NJPW fans that were attending this INOKI affiliated event. Nakamura loves the knees from the side position as do I and the fans in attendance (they are the best!). Goddamn Shinsuke Nakamura after just dominating the whole fight wins after a nasty looking keylock from mount! The fans are delighted once more by the Super Rookie and Trigg eats his dumbass words once again!
NAKAMURA EATS THE KNEE:
Inoki's relationship with K-1 continues as the THE IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION Shiksuke Nakamura comes to K-1 Premium DYNAMITE 2003 to challenge famed Belarusian heavyweight kickboxer Alexey Ignashov in the main event! Ignashov is a 4 time Muay Thai world champ and winner of various other kickboxing titles and tournaments while Shinsuke Nakamura is the youngest IWGP champ ever going into this fight. There is something so awesome about someone going into a shoot fight in front of thousands rocking a pro-wrestling championship. This is the kind of stuff I love to see, a brazen move that says "yes I am a pro-wrestler, the KING OF SPORTS."
I love the giant blue and white ring used here at DYNAMITE 2003, its so pleasing to the eyes especially as Nakamura drives Ignashov into the mat with repeated beautiful takedowns. He is very calm and patient, just as in his other fights, looking for that moment to slip into a stronger position or create space to do some damage with strikes. Round 2 begins with much of the same, this time with Nakamura looking to strike more from the full guard. The ref brings them back up and we see Nakamura eat his first knee of the fight, but he does not seemed phased and we hear the commentators mention his "PROWRES" strength. After some ground fighting and returning to their feet once more, Ignashov is able to stuff a takedown attempt and clips Nakamura with a soccer kick which brings this to a halt as those are not allowed here so the ref gives out a yellow card. As the doctors check Nakamura out, we hear the crowd chant his name making me (and hopefully Nakamura as well) very good.
This fight really is about a wrestler with some Vale Tudo flair up against a guy of pure stand-up ability, a super heavy kickboxer that stands 6ft 5in. Nakamura does not want a striking exchange at all and sticks to bringing it down again and again. God the fucking ref brings this up because Nakamura opened up a small cut on Ignashov's eye right as he stacked guard and started making some moves. The fight is started on the feet and NOOOOOOO Shinsuke Nakamura eats a bad knee to the face but jumps right back up AS THE REF CALLS THIS OFF FOR NO REASON. What a shit decision, truly up there with the famous "KO" call made by king of bad refs John McCarthy during the original Sakuraba fight in UFC Japan. Shinsuke Nakamura's corner was able to successfully protest this decision however and this is now rightfully listed as a NO CONTEST. It looks like we have a rematch on our hands!
THE SUPER ROOKIE WINS AGAIN FOR THE LAST TIME:
Fast forward to the month of May in 2004 and we are at K-1 ROMANEX, the first all MMA show promoted by K-1. Featuring Inoki fighters up and down the card, the much awaited rematch between the Super Rookie and Alexey Ignashov is here! Nakamura is without the IWGP belt here as he was forced to vacate it February of that year because of mounting injuries from his pro-wrestling touring and Vale Tudo training. A sad factor of this kind of cross competition, fighting for real and fake AT THE SAME TIME is incredibly hard on the body and was a strong factor is Nakamura being done with MMA after this fight. While he may have had a future in MMA, the pressure and injuries were too much so who can blame him for retiring so early from the real fight game. At least here, he can go out in a blaze of glory.
Nakamura drives Ignashov to the ropes early in the fight, carefully keeping distance from potential knees to the gut before Ignashov can manage to shake him off. The Super Rookie is back to his old bag of tricks, picking Ignashov's leg for a takedown that gets big cheers from the crowd. The NAKAMURA chants are so loud in the venue, and we can hear the sweet voice of our friend Antonio Inoki on commentary (always a treat!). From half guard Nakamura proves much more proactive than the last fight, landing some thudding strikes and going for a forearm check (YES). Shisuke Nakamura is just generally way more fired up in this fight and the crowd just eats it up. In round 2 Nakamura is again all over that single leg takedown and is back to grinding away at Ignashov. The ref screaming action as Nakamura is obviously working for a position change is so frustrating but again this is why MMA is terrible (it really is, why do I watch this! Please let this man grapple!!!). The crowd is SO excited when Nakamura gets to side control because they just FUCKIN' KNOW what is about to go down: FOREARM CHOKE! We see a quick smile from Inoki at the commentators booth, obviously proud that another kickboxer has been slain by such a gnarly, raw move. His last fight in the world of Vale Tudo, Nakamura is all smiles and so are we!
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