What's the story?
Looking at social media, it's clear to see that most fans were very underwhelmed by Nakamura's Backlash match against Dolph Ziggler. The situation was discussed on The Dirty Sheets Podcast via our “DS Breaking News,” where we also revealed why the Nakamura vs. Ziggler opened Backlash.
In case you didn't know...
Shinsuke Nakamura's televised SmackDown debut was held off until the pay per view, where he faced and beat Dolph Ziggler.
The heart of the matter
You didn't have to look too far on Twitter last night for negative feedback about the Nakamura vs Ziggler match. Many people questioned why the match was below par, with some wondering if the WWE are asking Nakamura to hold back or if he is taking it upon himself to work a much safer and watered down style, more suited to the WWE.
Here is one of the tweets that I picked out, regarding Nakamura’s underwhelming main roster debut.
What's next?
Nakamura is likely to start wrestling on SmackDown television now that his main roster debut has come and gone.
Author's take
What’s most worrying about his poor match with Dolph Ziggler, is the fact that they had over six weeks to perfect it, after working together on house shows and in dark matches since April 4th in Orlando. Nakamura won’t be afforded that luxury against his future opponents.
Nakamura was not signed by the WWE for his speaking skills, it was for his "strong style" working style. Yes, Nakamura is a very charismatic performer with a fantastic ring entrance, that the fans get behind.
However, the WWE will need to allow Nakamura to work a less limited style if they want him to succeed and be the major attraction they signed him to be. His match at Backlash was not perceived as a good start to his WWE main roster run.
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