WWE Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura revealed on Instagram that he is cleared to wrestle, which means that he could return to action as soon as tonight on WWE Friday Night SmackDown or on Saturday night at the Royal Rumble.
Rick Boogs recently revealed on the “Out of Character” podcast that Nakamura has been out of action with a hand injury. He said, “We’ve only had a couple of tag matches together and he suffered a hand injury that has kept him out for close to two months now, it seems like. So I’m looking forward to him being healthy and cleared so we can kick some tail.”
Nakamura hasn’t wrestled in over a month and he was originally supposed to defend the Intercontinental Championship against Sami Zayn at the Day 1 pay-per-view. That match was pulled from the show without any explanation given.
You can check out the hand x-rays below showing that he’s all healed up.
Shinsuke Nakamura is cleared to wrestle. pic.twitter.com/AsQyqRtB6H
— Wrestling News (@WrestlingNewsCo) January 28, 2022