10 Most Over Wrestlers In WWE Today

5. Shinsuke Nakamura

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WWE.com

It's hard for WWE to adopt the less is more approach when the super-saturated business model necessitates an influx of content, content, content.

It's about the only thing WWE has got right with Shinsuke Nakamura, the rule-proving exception, since his promotion from NXT. For once, WWE exercised restraint. He didn't wrestle his first match in WWE proper until the Backlash pay-per-view. This conveyed a message that Nakamura was something so special that you had to pay to see him...

...a marketing strategy WWE compromised, maddeningly, with the match layout. Nakamura, the King of Strong Style - translated from the original puroresu meaning as the best in the world at kicking people square in the face - fought from underneath against stigmatised loser Dolph Ziggler. It was counterintuitive, even by WWE standards.

Much more of this, and WWE risks normalising the most unique act on their roster. It hasn't quite happened yet. Nakamura ranks so highly here, even in spite of his inauspicious start, because everybody knows what he can do and wants desperately to see him do it. If WWE allows him to lay out his own matches, the company has something unlike anything we've seen in a WWE ring on their hands. That is precisely why fans are so unanimously and vociferously behind him.

Can they mess this up?

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!