Is Shinsuke Nakamura leaving WWE?
Last Friday, Shinsuke Nakamura dropped the United States Championship back to LA Knight in the main event of Smackdown. Nakamura’s reign has been criticized by many as WWE seemingly didn’t have plans for the 45-year-old despite the strong push he received before winning the belt.
Nakamura’s title reign only lasted 97 days and the WWE star only fought LA Knight for the belt. So it was head scratching that WWE had Nakamura win the title in such a dominant fashion at Survivor Series, only for him to drop it back to Knight a short time later.
Could that mean Shinsuke is on his way out the door?
Well, rumors started circulating after PWTorch's Wade Keller stated that Nakamura was on his way out. Several sources including Dave Meltzer checked the statement and WWE replied that the rumors were false. However, it wasn't completely squashed that Nakamura could be gone soon.
"When that story first broke, I immediately asked WWE and they immediately got back to me," Meltzer said (Transcript courtesy of Wrestlinginc). "They did not say what Wade Keller said was false. What they said was false was that Nakamura was leaving."
Meltzer speculated that Nakamura could be leaving to go back to New Japan Pro-Wrestling for Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement tour. WWE has become quite lenient with their ruling on working with other companies, with one example being that the company let Nakamura work a Pro Wrestling NOAH show in January. However, New Japan Pro-Wrestling and AEW are still allies in terms of partnership, so it would be unlikely for him to work NJPW anytime soon.
Of course, take these rumors with a grain of salt as nothing has been confirmed, but it wouldn’t be surprising if Nakamura left WWE either. Before his return in October, Nakamura was off television for a good portion of 2024. It’s clear that Nakamura’s role is to put over other talents, and given his age, Nakamura may want to finish out his career and do something more substantial. New Japan was his home before he made his transition to WWE in 2016. It’s not impossible to assume that he may want to end his career there as well.
Nakamura has not expressed that he is looking to leave WWE nor is there any confirmation that his contract is coming up soon. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens with the former United States Champion.