So we always see Michael's influence in modern music, dance, and film. We see all these guys trying to be like Mike. But I wanted to show how Michael's influence extends far beyond that. What does it look like when the biggest stars of something outside traditional performances like music, dance, & film try to emulate Michael?
Well, a really good example of that is with Shinsuke Nakamura in professional wrestling. He's an admitted hardcore fan of Michael and
Those of you who are fans of pro wrestling will know this already, but I thought MJ fam would be interested to know about Shinsuke Nakamura.
Shinsuke Nakamura is one of the big stars in pro wrestling that came up in the 2010s, and his main influence is Michael Jackson. He's Japanese, and he made his name in a company called New Japan Pro Wrestling before moving onto WWE in the US where he still is. His whole look and style, from his entrance, to the way he moves around, and the way he dresses is, even admitted by him and his closest friends as basically taken from Michael. Here's some quotes from the above:
Or AJ Styles, another wrestler who's one of his closest friends irl and often considered his greatest 'rival', talked about it:
Here's some pics of Shinsuke:
You can also see MJ influences in his entrances. For example, see the way he used a silhouette here:
[video=youtube;9hQf-8Vd7-g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hQf-8Vd7-g&feature=emb_title[/video]
You can kinda see it the way he moves around and behaves here. Also his title 'King of Strong Style' which he chose because he respected MJ as the King of Pop, so he wanted to be the 'King' in his own profession. DON'T need to watch the whole thing - Nakamura's part starts at around 3:30 in this next vid:
[video]https://dai.ly/x63hj25[/video]
Here's another good example where you can see how clearly Michael influenced him:
[video]https://youtu.be/iMYTBph4--s?t=41[/video]
So yeah, I just wanted to share this piece of Michael's legacy. You might not care about pro wrestling, but I think it's cool that millions of people around the world are exposed to a part of Michael's legacy every month when they see Nakamura perform. He really does right by Michael and he's never stopped.
Well, a really good example of that is with Shinsuke Nakamura in professional wrestling. He's an admitted hardcore fan of Michael and
Those of you who are fans of pro wrestling will know this already, but I thought MJ fam would be interested to know about Shinsuke Nakamura.
Shinsuke Nakamura is one of the big stars in pro wrestling that came up in the 2010s, and his main influence is Michael Jackson. He's Japanese, and he made his name in a company called New Japan Pro Wrestling before moving onto WWE in the US where he still is. His whole look and style, from his entrance, to the way he moves around, and the way he dresses is, even admitted by him and his closest friends as basically taken from Michael. Here's some quotes from the above:
-Shinsuke Nakamura
Or AJ Styles, another wrestler who's one of his closest friends irl and often considered his greatest 'rival', talked about it:
Here's some pics of Shinsuke:
You can also see MJ influences in his entrances. For example, see the way he used a silhouette here:
[video=youtube;9hQf-8Vd7-g]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hQf-8Vd7-g&feature=emb_title[/video]
You can kinda see it the way he moves around and behaves here. Also his title 'King of Strong Style' which he chose because he respected MJ as the King of Pop, so he wanted to be the 'King' in his own profession. DON'T need to watch the whole thing - Nakamura's part starts at around 3:30 in this next vid:
[video]https://dai.ly/x63hj25[/video]
Here's another good example where you can see how clearly Michael influenced him:
[video]https://youtu.be/iMYTBph4--s?t=41[/video]
So yeah, I just wanted to share this piece of Michael's legacy. You might not care about pro wrestling, but I think it's cool that millions of people around the world are exposed to a part of Michael's legacy every month when they see Nakamura perform. He really does right by Michael and he's never stopped.
