It appears that at the age of 45, Shinsuke Nakamura will hang up the wrestling boots for good.
The former two-time United States Champion spoke with
The Straits Times due to the media promotion for WWE’s upcoming tour of Asia next month and Nakamura confirmed how long he intends to wrestle (transcript courtesy of
wrestletalk.com) :
“I want to wrestle at least five more years. I’m 39 now. Baseball player Ichiro Suzuki retired at 45 and he was such an influence for Japanese sportsmen, especially those who lived in other countries, and so I need to wrestle until I’m 45 years old.”
Nakamura originally made his professional wrestling debut back in 2002 for New Japan Pro Wrestling and was with the Japanese promotion for nearly 15 years. During his time with New Japan, he became known as the ‘The King of Strong Style’ and won several titles including the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental championships.
Nakamura moved over to WWE in 2016 and had his first match-up against Sami Zayn at NXT TakeOver: Dallas, which was met to much critical acclaim. There’s no word on what the future holds for Nakamura in the WWE as the Smackdown Live star is barely featured these days; however, let’s hope that Nakamura ends his career with a bang.