>>14500813If you have a sub to
AJPW.tv they uploaded a ton of his stuff from when he was tag champ with Sasaki back in the early 00s. Sadly a lot of his best early work was freelancing in Noah during the latter half of the 00s and the rights to that are still owned by Nippon TV. You can probably try to find video of it on Dailymotion or Bilibili if you look.
There is a really good match he had with Bryan Danielson in ROH that took place in 2008 if I recall. I really can't remember the details on this one since it has been so long since I have seen it, but it was my first introduction to Nakajima and what sent me down the rabbit hole of puro
The tag match between Nakajima/Sasaki vs Go Shiozaki and Kenta Kobashi in Noah was very very good. Generally speaking Go Shiozaki and Nakajima worked very well together so you can pretty much guarantee if you find a match between the two of them it will be good, at least up until the late 2010s early 2020s when Go's age started showing and he kept getting injured.
The Kento Miyahara vs Nakajima match from Nakajima's most recent AJPW run is pretty damned good, but becomes even better when you know the history of the two men and start to understand why Miyahara is taking so many liberties and why Nakajima just sort of lets him get away with it.
Nakajima had a few brutally stiff matches with Kenta Kobayashi over the second half of the 00s which took place in Noah and Sasaki's Diamond Ring promotion. Pre-sawdusted Kenta was a sight to behold and it is really no wonder so many indie guys in the US bit his style.
If you like the Briscoe Bros they had a great match facing Nakajima and Kota Ibushi in Noah back in the 00s. It's just a wild ass match with four dudes with completely different styles throwing everything they had at one another.
Nakajima has had a really long career for a guy as young as he is, and despite having a lot of stinkers in that time, the times he does shine are fantastic. Definitely worth a look.
