Shinsuke Nakamura Gloats About Opening 'Real Forbidden Door'

The Great Muta, legendary Japanese wrestler also known as Keiji Muto, will be retiring early next year and has been on a retirement tour in recent months, which included a surprise appearance on "AEW Rampage: Grand Slam" when he assisted Sting in a match earlier this month. But Pro Wrestling NOAH announced Sunday that Muta would be competing in at least one last "dream" match against current WWE star Shinsuke Nakamura – a match previously thought impossible because of WWE's long-standing policy of keeping their wrestlers in-house.

Nakamura told Tokyo Sport this week that getting the WWE to allow him to do the match was a challenge. There was a good amount of pushback within the WWE against Shinsuke Nakamura's upcoming "miracle" match against The Great Muta.

"There were people in WWE who pushed back," Nakamura, told the Japanese outlet, according to a translation. "It's nothing but a miracle. Of course, I wanted to do it. I opened a door that no one could break in. Hahaha...it's a real 'Forbidden Door.' "

Tokyo Sport reported that Nakamura negotiated "tenaciously" with the WWE's new Triple H-led regime in order to get them to allow the match and that the WWE finally came to an agreement with Nakamura last week on October 26.

Despite the challenges in getting the match setup, Nakamura and Muta – who once had a rivalry over the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship back in 2008 – are now officially set to square off on January 1, 2023 at the Budokan arena in Tokyo.