Shinsuke Nakamura was a recent guest on Sam Robert’s NotSam podcast where he talked in detail about his experience in the WWE thus far. Among their conversation, the current United States champion revealed his thoughts about his time in NXT, specifically how much training time he put into the Performance Center, and why joining the “developmental” brand first was initially better for him and his family.

If I went directly to main roster I’d have no time. Because I move here from Japan with my family I needed time, time to get my social security card, find school, get license, an apartment. NXT Schedule every Sunday was off. In my whole career, I never had that. That was amazing. I felt like I’m doing a regular job. I could go to school with my daughter. I spent one year in NXT, but it was great for me.

2016 I join NXT. Almost every day I came to PC. To take a class, I was in the gym, watching my match, other wrestler’s matches, going to promo class, working on my entrance.

Nakamura would go on to talk about his heel turn at this year’s WrestleMania in his losing effort against A.J. Styles, and why that changed helped show off his diverse skill as a performer.

I have much more to prove. I have only shown just 15% of me. I took a lot of time to adjust, TV wise, house show wise, the platform. Also NXT and Smackdown and Raw are much different. Oh my goodness. Still changing a lot, more agents, Europeans, and schedule also change.

I like changing. In wrestling and in entertainment the most important thing is giving an impression. Changing to heel gave a huge impact at Wrestlemania. I feel comfortable because I can show more personality.

Finally the King of Strong Style covered his favorite opponents in WWE. That is to say…that everyone is his favorite.

The more I wrestle the more I learn from them. Every day I wrestle the same opponent. So every wrestler is my favorite. Right now I like Jeff Hardy.

Listen to the full interview here.