Posted May 28, 20232 yr comment_6004955 IWGP Champion Brock Lesnar vs Shinsuke Nakamura - NJPW Tokyo Dome 1/4/06 Wow Brock does it again! He only had four title matches in New Japan, but half of them been killer! This match was the opposite of the Akebono match which really shows Brock's range as a pro wrestler. The Akebono match was all about wrestling small, vulnerable and underneath. Here he wrestles so big and powerful. He is Mount Everest and a Grizzly Bear wrapped in one. Then only in the finish stretch he shows his vulnerability enough to make you believe Nakamura has a chance. In fairness to Nakamura, he wrestled really well here. I slagged him a lot in the Tenzan match for pedestrian selling and not scrapping enough underneath. This match he was just hurling his body at Brock for 9 minutes hoping to Dear God something would stick. Nakamura came out hot with strikes. The way Brock would just shove him around was so powerful. He is a force of nature. He would catch kicks and just STEAMROLL him with a clothesline or with a wicked capture suplex. Nakamura would just keep coming. Brock was cruising. They spill to the floor. The way Brock just bulled him into the apron was so powerful. Nakamura gets the high ground first and that's so important. He gets his first major head-rocking kick to Brock. Brock registers it, but he does not oversell it. If he did that would undercut Nakamura's offense and the credibility of the match. Instead he starts registering these Nakamura's strikes. You can see he is slowing down absorbing these blows but he is still overpowering Nakamura. Nakamura's big finish run was when got a hanging armbar/triangle over the ropes. Boom here comes that grizzly bear selling that makes Brock, Hansen and Vader so special. Forces of nature that at the right, SELECTIVE moments show vulnerability. Nakamura missile dropkick! Nakamura German! Cross-armbreaker! Triangle! BROCK POWERBOMB! HE THROWS HIM DOWN! BROCK STEAMROLL CLOTHESLINE! F-5 WIN! All bow down to the greatness that is Brock Lesnar and an awesome underneath performance from Nakamura. ****1/4
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