10 Great Wrestling Feuds With Awful Payoff Matches

10. AJ Styles Vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

For anybody with even a passing interest in New Japan Pro Wrestling, the prospect of seeing AJ Styles square off against Shinsuke Nakamura – at WrestleMania, no less! – was a mouth-watering proposal.

Finally, with Styles running SmackDown as the WWE Champion and Nakamura having won the 2018 Royal Rumble, the pair were put on a collision course for WrestleMania 34. Surely this was the match that would steal the show, right? It absolutely, undoubtedly, impossibly could not be a dud, yeah?

When all was said and done, the Styles vs. Nakamura match was “okay”. The thing is, with the genuine chemistry and history between the two, audiences were expecting a whole lot more than “okay” for this battle at the Showcase of the Immortals. Styles got the victory, then the King of Strong Style turned heel by giving AJ a post-match shot to the balls.

Several other PPV matches between the pair would follow WrestleMania 34, yet all of them were frustratingly average and largely built around Shinsuke’s fascination with slamming his forearm into Styles’ little Phenomenal One.

Authored by Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

Posted On: 7th Jul 2019

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