WWE Superstar Shinsuke Nakamura had the wrestling world talking following the recent WWE tour of Japan that saw Nakamura make a number of references to the President of New Japan Pro Wrestling, his long-time friend Hiroshi Tanahashi. Nakamura even shouted Tanahashi out in a post-match promo, leading many to wonder if it's possible that Nakamura will be Tanahashi's final opponent when "The Ace" retires from wrestling at NJPW WrestleKingdom 20 on January 4. Various things would have to fall into place in order for it to happen, but Dave Meltzer stated on "Wrestling Observer Radio" that it isn't out of the realm of possibility.
"I would just say, it's not a done deal right now. Could it happen? I mean Nakamura has in his contract he can do stuff in Japan, that was part of the deal he signed. So it's a weird political thing, because obviously New Japan and AEW work very closely together." Meltzer noted that a WWE Superstar has appeared on a New Japan show since the company established a partnership with AEW, that being Karl Anderson at Wrestle Kingdom 17, who was under contract with WWE when he dropped the NEVER Openweight Championship to Tama Tonga. However, Meltzer claimed that was a very difficult match to pull off due to the negotiations backstage.
With that said, Meltzer believes that all of the talk of AEW President Tony Khan being angry with New Japan potentially bringing Nakamura in likely won't happen because, at the end of the day, it's Tanahashi's decision. "My gut is that, and I could be dead wrong, but even though WWE and AEW are feuding and all the stuff WWE does to AEW constantly. I do think that Tony Khan, I don't know. People are going 'oh he's going to get really mad' I don't know. Maybe he will but I don't think so. I just think it's Tanahashi's retirement and if Tanahashi wants to retire against Nakamura and they can pull that off, I think it should be okay."
Please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
