Shinsuke Nakamura Comments on How His Match With The Great Muta Was Approved

Shinsuke Nakamura is currently preparing to face The Great Muta at Pro Wrestling NOAH's The New Year 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan on Jan. 1. The match's announcement came as a shock to fans back in October as Nakamura is still under contract with the WWE and, until very recently, the idea of an active WWE star appearing in another promotion was virtually impossible. Nakamura spoke with Yahoo! Japan ahead of the match and explained how it was only able to happen thanks to WWE's change in leadership. Vince McMahon stepped down from all of his positions in WWE back in July amid multiple scandals, allowing Paul "Triple H" Levesque to take over as the company's new booker. 

"I can't believe it," Nakamura said (translated from Japanese). "To be honest, I can't believe it. I can't believe it will come true. It was almost impossible with the structure of the company called WWE until then. Vince (McMahon) resigned in July, and I received some advice from people in the company, 'I might be able to go now.' Even so, I thought it would be difficult, but I directly (talked with Triple H) and I was shocked when it actually came to a decision."

"From Muta's retirement announcement to the time the fight was decided, there was a big change in WWE. Vince (McMahon), who was the icon of everything, retired. In America, when the top management changes, everything changes. At that time, there was a feeling that various things would change from now on. One of the changes that happened to me was this. The fact that 'no; was replaced with 'yes' was a boost," he added. 

Nakamura's crossover match turned out to be just the beginning of WWE's new policy. The company signed The Good Brothers to a new contract back in October even though Karl Anderson was still the NEVER Openweight Champion for New Japan Pro-Wrestling and had dates with the company up through January. WWE has allowed him to continue making those dates, including a title defense at the NJPW World Tag League final on Dec. 14. He'll defend his title against Tama Tonga on Jan. 4 at the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom 17.