He may well be the United States Champion now, but Shinsuke Nakamura reveals that he thought he was going to be fired by the WWE last year.

Speaking to the guys over at Gorilla Position, the Japanese superstar claims that there really was one match he thought would be his last. 

Why did he think it would be his last? Because of the fact that he nearly caused a serious injury to one of the top stars in the company. 

Cast your mind back to August of last year as Nakamura took on John Cena in a match that fans had been waiting for on SmackDown Live. 

Nakamura delivered a back suplex during the bout and accidentally dropped Cena on the back of his neck, before finishing him off with a devastating Kinshasa knee strike.

Nakamura returned backstage to a barrage of heat from the botched suplex and believed that it would be the end of his push in the WWE.

Thankfully, Cena stepped up and admirably took the blame for selling the move wrong, rather than pinning it on Shinsuke.

“Some people were upset backstage, not John Cena. But someone," Nakamura said.

"They got p****d off at me, ‘Why did you do that?’ So, I just thought my career is finished today. But everybody came to support me and help me, even John Cena.

“Not everybody gets the chance to wrestle with John Cena now. I felt good in the ring with John Cena. If I have the chance, I’m gonna wrestle with him again. Maybe we can create [something] better than before.”

Cena used to carry a bad rap backstage with his treatment of some wrestlers - cough, Alex Riley, cough. But it's good to see that he's calmed down a bit and is willing to help other stars out when they need the backing.