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Shinsuke Nakamura debuted on the WWE main roster on the post-Wrestlemania episode of Smackdown Live, interrupting Miz and Maryse, who were cutting a promo on their match against John Cena and Nikki Bella. Since then, Nakamura's run has been underwhelming, to say the least.
The charismatic King of Strong Style was coming off a fantastic year with WWE NXT, with a great feud with Bobby Roode, to whom he dropped the NXT title before moving to the main roster.
Two underwhelming feuds with Dolph Ziggler and Baron Corbin later, Nakamura had lost a lot of the charisma and aura surrounding him. While these feuds should have been clean sweeps for Shinsuke, many matches ended in DQs and hard-fought victories which did not put him over as the brutal hard-hitter he was in NXT or NJPW.
After losing to then WWE champion Jinder Mahal for the belt, and being eliminated first in the Survivor Series match, he hasn't even been featured in the last couple of Smackdown Live episodes.
Does Nakamura deserve to win the Rumble given his latest run? Definitely. Let's see why and how a Royal Rumble 2018 victory can and should revive the artist's career in the WWE main roster.
#1 Nakamura has had a clean victory over John Cena
Nakamura defeated John Cena on the August 1st episode of Smackdown Live to become the #1 contender for the WWE Championship.
Irrespective of the outcome of his championship pursuit, very few in the WWE have clean victories over John Cena, and reminding people of this victory through video packages will put him over as a legitimate top-dog of the company.
#2 He has a huge cult following of NXT and indie fans
Nakamura has garnered a very large, aggressively loyal fanbase, owing to his very successful runs in NXT, and in promotions like NJPW before that. This fanbase loves the "artist" and his art passionately, and a "Nakamura" chant happens every time he enters a WWE ring due to these fans.
Even when he was eliminated first in the Survivor Series match, you could clearly hear the crowd behind him as he used his knee attacks on the RAW team.
#3 He has the most over wrestling entrance in WWE
Nakamura has one the most unique and over entrances in the WWE right now. His charismatic, unique persona, combined with the extremely catchy violin-based entrance ("The Rising Sun"), is a pleasure to watch.
Even casual fans who know Nakamura only from his main roster performances recognise his entrance, and love his unique style and aura.
Visualise that entrance theme hit post #25 at the Royal Rumble! That'll get the loudest pop on the show.
#4 Unique in-ring work
Combining a unique blend of hard-hitting strong style with stiff knee-strike based manoeuvres, amazing aerial moves, a stiff armbar submission, and a strong display of his skills as an MMA athlete, Nakamura has one of the most unique moves in the current roster. His finishing move, the "Kinshasa", a running knee from the corner, is a widely recognised fan favourite.
His eccentric style combined with his unique presence in the ring guarantees a great match, given he has a decent counterpart, as is evident by his matches with the likes of Sami Zayn and Bobby Roode from his NXT days.
#5 WrestleMania main event needs a "WrestleMania" calibre match
The main event of Wrestlemania is arguably one of the top spots to be in the wrestling industry and the WWE goes through a whole year of planning to decide the main events of WM.
The RAW main event is mostly going to be Brock Lesnar versus Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship, and while this is a very interesting and exciting match, this certainly won't be a great technical match. Both are phenomenal athletes, but Lesnar matches are typically spot fests with the match dominated by suplexes and F5's, with occasional signature move counters from the opponent.
To counter this, the Smackdown Live main event should be a technical masterpiece, and who better to do that than one of the best technical wrestlers in the world right now. Putting Nakamura against AJ Styles at the Grandest Stage of Them All for the WWE Championship is every wrestling fan's dream.
Do you think Nakamura has a chance of winning the Royal Rumble this coming year? Sound off in the comments section below.
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