AJ Styles Reveals The Specific WWE Skill NARAKU Needs To Learn That Doesn’t Exist In Japan

AJ Styles has defended the decision for NARAKU to begin his WWE career in NXT rather than going straight to the main roster, drawing a direct comparison to his own experience and Shinsuke Nakamura’s.

Speaking on his Phenomenally Retro Podcast, Styles pushed back on the idea that NXT is beneath a performer of NARAKU’s caliber.

“Can I just say this? Shinsuke Nakamura was also in NXT. I’m just throwing that out there. Listen, I think there’s certain things that we all need to learn in NXT that will prepare us for the main roster. Even I had to learn quick. It was a learning process and I had to learn quick because I was on there. I couldn’t afford to screw up or mess up or whatever it is you want to call it. I wanted to stay on the main roster and I had to impress the guy in charge. So we don’t want anybody to go up to the main roster and have to learn like that.”

He also pointed to a specific technical difference between WWE and NJPW production that makes the NXT period valuable.

“We have to make sure that EVIL, as we’re gonna call him, doesn’t turn his back to the hard camera. That he knows where all of them are and how we film and everything and produce because you don’t do that in Japan. There’s no producers in Japan because it doesn’t matter where the cameras are. They just shoot. They don’t know, at least when I was there, they didn’t know that it was entertainment. It was a sport. So the camera guys were not involved in the booking meetings, whatever, the meetings in general. So we need to know where all this stuff is. It’s important.”

Reports indicated that NARAKU personally requested to start in NXT. He made his in-ring debut on the May 12 episode, defeating Lince Dorado. He also married IYO SKY, confirmed Sunday, making this one of the more eventful debut months in recent WWE history.