10 Wrestlers Who Should Have Been Megastars By Now – But Aren’t

4. Shinsuke Nakamura

Even though Shinsuke Nakamura’s only been on the main roster a matter of months, you kind of get the feeling the company has already dropped the ball with him.

Since debuting at Backlash in May, he’s only actually wrestled in three singles bouts, and none of them have been particularly spectacular. Even at Money in the Bank, he spent half of the ladder match injured in the back rather than actually, you know, wrestling.

Still, it’s not just the pedestrian start to his main roster career that’s prevented Nakamura from becoming the icon we know he can be. It’s the fact that those in charge waited so damn long to call him up in the first place.

By the time Nakamura arrived on SmackDown, almost 15 long months had passed since his initial signing with the company. By that time, much of the buzz and hype surrounding his arrival had therefore been lost, and so rather than setting the world alight he’s simply, on occasion, looked like just another upper mid-card talent. And we all know he's better than that.