The Golden Age Of Nakamura
Nakamura was set to usher in a golden age for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and put the spotlight on it with full intensity. At the time Nakamura won the Intercontinental Championship, he had already been a three-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion which was a big deal for the IC belt. Fans started paying more attention to the Intercontinental Championship because it was around the waist of the King of Strong Style.
Nakamura’s run as the Intercontinental Championship spanned across a variety of feuds but it seemed like Nakamura was never going to drop the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. He had almost become synonymous with the belt and this was only his first reign. He had more title defenses than any other wrestler in history who has held the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at a total of eight. Nakamura defeated the likes of Lance Archer, Oliver John, Shelton Benjamin, and former IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hirooki Goto during this run. Seeing such big names feuding over the Intercontinental Championship made it something bigger than a mid-card title. Unlike with other promotions, this secondary title had almost came neck and neck with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The title was truly elevated in status. Nakamura even took the title over to different promotions and thus his 313-day reign came to an end after someone from outside the promotion defeated him. That ‘someone’ was La Sombra.
Nakamura was battling it out with the best of CMLL when he came across the rising star known as La Sombra. Nakamura had defeated him earlier in 2013 but later they faced each other mostly in tag team matches where La Sombra always seemed to get the upper hand and therefore a match was set: Shinsuke Nakamura vs La Sombra in a two-out-of-three falls match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship in Mexico.
The final score was 2-1, with La Sombra walking out as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion. La Sombra is now more commonly known as Andrade in AEW but during his early days, he was ‘The Shadow’. Beating Nakamura was huge and that too for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. La Sombra’s future sure would have looked bright then. He held onto the title for a while in CMLL defending once against long-time rival Volador Jr. However, the King of Strong Style wasn’t done with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and challenged La Sombra this time on Nakamura’s own turf in New Japan Pro Wrestling. Both of the wrestlers were tied at one win each over the other and on July 20, 2013, Shinsuke Nakamura regained the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Shinsuke Nakamura became the first wrestler ever to hold the IWGP Intercontinental Championship more than once. Soon after his second run started, Nakamura found himself wrestling in the G1 Climax and had a quite dominant run until his hopes of winning the G1 were put to a stop by Shelton Benjamin. Given that Benjamin defeated Nakamura in the G1, he was given an IWGP Intercontinental Championship opportunity. The two faced each other at Destruction on September 29, 2013, where Nakamura emerged as the victor marking his first successful title defense in his second run.
Nakamura’s next challenger came from NOAH in the form of Naomichi Marufuji at the King of Pro Wrestling event but he was no match to the King of Strong Style. Things only got difficult for Nakamura from thereon. It was soon announced that Nakamura would be facing Minoru Suzuki for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. This was the toughest challenge Nakamura had faced up until that point. Even though it was believed that Nakamura would be heading into Wrestle Kingdom as champion, Minoru Suzuki standing in the way put a huge shadow of doubt over that speculation.
Nakamura clashed with Suzuki at Power Struggle 2013 where Nakamura proved to be the better wrestler making his second successful title defense. After the match was over, it was time for Nakamura to pick an opponent for Wrestle Kingdom and he picked his longtime rival and the Ace of New Japan Hiroshi Tanahashi who brought Nakamura’s second run to an end at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in the Tokyo Dome.
Hiroshi Tanahashi was an already established star and passing on the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Nakamura to Tanahashi was a smart move as it upheld the importance of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Tanahashi’s run with the Intercontinental Belt was mostly involved in a feud with Nakamura. It didn’t sit well with Nakamura that Tanahashi had not only taken the title from him but also had proven that he was the better wrestler.
Nakamura came after the Intercontinental Championship by challenging Tanahashi to a match the next month at the New Beginning in Hiroshima. Unfortunately for Nakamura, Tanahashi was successful in defending the Intercontinental Championship. The New Japan Cup arrived and Nakamura was announced as a participant. The King of Strong Style absolutely ripped through the tournament winning the New Japan Cup 2014. The winner of the New Japan Cup has the option of challenging either the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, IWGP Intercontinental Championship, or the NEVER Openweight Championship. Every winner in New Japan Cup history has challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight except for one.
In 2014, after winning the New Japan Cup, Shinsuke Nakamura chose to challenge for the IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. It is argued that at that moment, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship truly rose and became a World Title. On April 6, 2014, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to start his third run as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion.
Out of all of Nakamura’s reigns as Intercontinental Champion, this one stands out the least. It was hard to follow an amazing rivalry with Hiroshi Tanahashi. However, Nakamura and his fellow CHAOS stablemates were launched into a rivalry with the Bullet Club. Nakamura was able to sneak in one defense before going head to head with the powerhouse that is Bad Luck Fale. The two locked horns at Dominion 6.21 in Osaka, Japan, and Bad Luck Fale came out strong establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with.
Fale brought the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to the Bullet Club. The Bullet Club was a faction that was growing faster than any other group in the world of professional wrestling. Giving them the Intercontinental Championship was a smart decision. However, as proved in the last few months, Nakamura will do anything to get his hands back on the IWGP Intercontinental Championship and that’s exactly what happened. G1 Climax approached and Nakamura and Fale both crossed paths in the tournament as Nakamura defeated Fale in a non-title match. Not long after both of them were done with the G1 Climax, a match was booked for Destruction where, on September 21, 2014, in Kobe, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Bad Luck Fale for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Shinsuke Nakamura had begun his fourth reign as the IWGP Intercontinental Champion after defeating Bad Luck Fale. By this point, it was a well-known fact that Nakamura is always going to be remembered in the same breath as the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. His fourth run only solidified his legacy with the title. During this run, Nakamura had some notable matches including one which is considered to be one of his best matches ever. Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Kota Ibushi at Wrestle Kingdom 9. The next prominent wrestler who challenged for the Intercontinental Championship happened to be the one Nakamura wasn’t able to defeat. On May 3, 2015, Shinsuke Nakamura lost the IWGP Intercontinental Championship to Hirooki Goto.
By winning the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, Goto became the only wrestler apart from Shinsuke Nakamura to hold the IWGP Intercontinental Championship more than once. Nakamura continued his rivalry with Goto and even got a match against him at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka Jo Hall. However, Nakamura was unable to beat Goto and failed to get back the belt. Nakamura did not stop there. Bullet Club continued to feud with CHAOS after the G1 Climax was over in which Nakamura reached the finals only to be defeated by Hiroshi Tanahashi. Not losing hope, Nakamura clashed with Goto one last time at Destruction where Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Goto to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Shinsuke Nakamura had become a five-time Intercontinental Champion. This happened to be Nakamura’s last run with the title. Nakamura’s days in New Japan were numbered. He spent his last months feuding with Bullet Club defeating Karl Anderson on his way to Wrestle Kingdom. At Wrestle Kingdom 10, Nakamura defeated AJ Styles, the leader of the Bullet Club in his last title match for NJPW. Nakamura was off to WWE and therefore the IWGP Intercontinental Championship was stripped off him and was thus vacated.
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