5 Realistic opponents for Roman Reigns after defeating Rey Mysterio

#3. Shinsuke Nakamura - Never got a title shot from Roman Reigns

Shinsuke Nakamura is the new King of SmackDown

Shinsuke Nakamura was supposed to be Roman Reigns' original opponent at Royal Rumble 2021. It seems ages ago, but Nakamura had his best WWE main roster performance earlier this year and won a gauntlet match clean to earn a Universal Title shot at WrestleMania 37.

Somehow, Roman Reigns manipulated his way into registering authority figure Adam Pearce as a wrestler and injected him into the gauntlet match after Nakamura had already won.

The spot on Friday Night SmackDown recently that saw Shinsuke Nakamura pin King Corbin, Rey Mysterio and Daniel Bryan in a gauntlet match was originally planned for Cesaro. #WWE #SmackDown[@davemeltzerWON] pic.twitter.com/iYN7JotoJ8

— Louis Dangoor (@TheLouisDangoor) February 5, 2021

Reigns ensured Nakamura was completely thrashed and threw Adam Pearce's body over him. This made the authority figure the Royal Rumble opponent of Roman Reigns, but that soon changed to Kevin Owens.

This was an injustice to Shinsuke Nakamura, who deserved to be in a World title feud. Instead, WWE chose to recycle Kevin Owens as Roman Reigns' opponent. At the time, it was rumored that Cesaro would have gotten the spot that Nakamura was in, but contract negotiations with WWE prevented them from taking the risk.

The one true KING has been crowned! 👑#SmackDown @ShinsukeN @rickboogswwe @BaronCorbinWWE pic.twitter.com/yYyx6ULgA8

— WWE (@WWE) June 19, 2021

With Shinsuke Nakamura now done with Baron Corbin, he could be a challenger to Roman Reigns and the Universal Championship.