In two years competing in NXT and on WWE’s main roster as a babyface, Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance theme was one of the most popular among wrestling fans, who’d sing along to the violin parts of the instrumental piece. Given his recent heel turn at WrestleMania 34 , it was decided that the “King of Strong Style” needed an entrance song more consistent with his new villainous character. That song debuted on this week’s episode of SmackDown Live , as Nakamura continued solidifying his heel turn and furthering his feud against reigning WWE Champion AJ Styles.
As recalled by PopCulture , Shinsuke Nakamura’s new entrance theme made its debut on Tuesday night, as he teamed up with Rusev and Aiden English against Styles, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows in a six-man tag team match that served as SmackDown Live’s main event. Compared to the original theme, the new song is very similar, with the same melody and the same violin parts, but with aggressive lead vocals rapped in Japanese and a band called Shadows of the Sun performing the song on the Titantron.
Commenting on the change in presentation, PopCulture opined that the move was a “genius stroke” on WWE’s part to prevent fans from mouthing the riffs of Shinsuke Nakamura’s entrance theme. This, the publication added, might come about as awkward, considering that Nakamura has shifted to a villainous role and that it wouldn’t sound right for fans to get behind a heel’s ring music too much. Likewise, a tweet from Daily DDT cited WWE commentator Corey Graves, who said on SmackDown Live that Nakamura himself requested Japanese lyrics for his theme song because he was “tired” of hearing fans sing along to it.
With the new entrance theme helping redefine his character, Nakamura scored the winning pinfall in the aforementioned six-man tag match, finishing off Luke Gallows with a kick to the back of the head, according to Give Me Sport’s SmackDown Live recap for this week. Consistent with his actions since his WrestleMania 34 heel turn, Nakamura added insult to injury by dropping AJ Styles with another low blow, then targeted Karl Anderson to continue his post-match beatdown on the babyface trio.
THIS FRIDAY: A #WrestleMania rematch will take place when @AJStylesOrg defends his #WWETitle against @ShinsukeN in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at #WWEGRR ! #SDLive pic.twitter.com/ugK98Dmten
— WWE (@WWE) April 25, 2018
Shinsuke Nakamura is set to face Styles for the WWE Championship at the Greatest Royal Rumble on Friday in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in a rematch of their WrestleMania 34 encounter.
