There has been one superstar that Sami Zayn used to associate with a few years ago, and he was spotted in the background this week on SmackDown after being out for three months.This week on SmackDown, Sami Zayn had yet another open challenge, and he was backstage with one of his previous opponents, Rey Fenix. They had a nice discussion about what a great match it was between them, but what was interesting was the figure who was in the background.It was none other than Sami Zayn's former partner, Shinsuke Nakamura. The Japanese star hasn't been seen on WWE television since June, when he competed in the King of the Ring tournament. He was seen looming in the background, seemingly being teased as a future opponent for Zayn.However, it wasn't this week that he answered the open challenge. Seeing as they were in Orlando, Florida, it made sense for an NXT star to come, and it made even more sense that it was the highly acclaimed Je'Von Evans. At just 21 years old, Je'Von Evans has accomplished a lot in his young career, and even Michael Cole couldn't help but declare that, in his opinion, Evans is a future world Champion.Either way, we can probably expect Shinsuke Nakamura and Sami Zayn to cross paths soon. Last year, Nakamura returned to dethrone LA Knight before losing the title back to him before WrestleMania 41. Perhaps he could be the one to dethrone Zayn as well, but for now, the current United States Champion is on a roll with his open challenges.He seems to have been the closest to replicating John Cena's successful United States open challenge, emulating what the GOAT did a decade prior on RAW. It will be interesting to see how this reign unfolds.