WWE Announces AWOL Star Will Return Next Week
This wrestler hasn't worked TV since November, but he'll be on next week's WWE SmackDown.
WWE has announced that Shinsuke Nakamura will return to action on next week's episode of SmackDown.
The Japanese star hasn't worked a match for the promotion since making some house show shots earlier in the year, and he hasn't worked on TV since losing a SmackDown World Cup bout to Santos Escobar on the 11 November 2022 edition.
Nakamura did, however, appear on NOAH's The New Year 2023 show on 1 January. There, he defeated future WWE Hall Of Famer the Great Muta before going on to team with Braun Strowman and Madcap Moss on WWE Live events throughout January.
There's no word yet on exactly what creative has planned for Shin.
His tag-team with Rick Boogs was previously iced due to injuries, so a singles run seems much more likely. There's always a chance that Nakamura will be fed to GUNTHER as a sacrificial lamb in the Intercontinental Title hunt again. Previously, those guys worked well together before Shinsuke's sabbatical.
The alternative, of course, is that Naka forms another tag with someone else on the roster. Or, maybe he'll move to Raw long-term in the upcoming Draft.