10 Clean Wins Over Top WWE Stars That Were Totally Wasted
1. Shinsuke Nakamura D. John Cena (SmackDown - 1 Aug 2017)
He's one of the most popular wrestlers in the company, but Shinsuke Nakamura's main roster run has been a mixed bag. 'The King Of Strong Style' won his feud with Dolph Ziggler, but was made to go 60/40 in 'The Show-Off's' favour at Backlash, and couldn't win the Money In The Bank briefcase the following month. Regardless, Nakamura remained undefeated, and was booked in the biggest match of his WWE career on 1 August.
Nakamura faced John Cena in a legitimate dream match, and while many felt WWE were making a mistake by wasting the bout on weekly television, it was a solid affair regardless. Shinsuke scored the victory in the best match of his main roster career thus far, earning the right to challenge for Jinder Mahal's WWE Championship, and the bout was booked for SummerSlam.
Sadly, WWE booked Shinsuke to lose. He fell via Singh Brothers' distraction, which not only burned his main roster undefeated streak, but killed whatever momentum was left from the Cena match.
Nakamura will likely take Mahal's championship before long, but that's not the point. He defeated WWE's biggest star in a TV main event, and what came of it? Nothing. The correct way to capitalise on this would've been to have Nakamura beat Jinder at SummerSlam, before eventually setting up a pay-per-view rematch with Cena, but alas.