10 Reasons Shinsuke Nakamura's WWE Run Will Fail

9. The NXT Move

Shinsuke Nakamura Dolph Ziggler
WWE.com

Should Shinsuke Nakamura unsuccessfully transition to WWE's main roster, he'd be sidled amongst the sort of performers that would make a dream roster for a start-up promotion.

Alongside potentially great but underdeveloped talents like Apollo Crews, The Vaudevillians, Adam Rose and Emma (and until very recently, Tyler Breeze), the company has even dropped the ball with one of the biggest breakout stars ever in Bayley. 'The Hugger' was everything to everybody in NXT, a universally beloved and believable babyface that has been contorted and distorted by Vince McMahon's fatal misunderstanding of what made her so popular to begin with.

Particularly in the case of those performers that shone in the brand's 2014-2016 white hot period, the leap from the developmental brand to the big stage came with compromise and intricately careful development. Few have thrived without faltering at some point, with even best case scenarios such as Kevin Owens and Charlotte Flair suffering their fair share of creative abuse in between hugely satisfying runs.

A reboot or hard reset is only ever an episode of Monday Night Raw or SmackDown Live! away, but Nakamura may not be the type of performer to weather such an awkward shift. He needs to make his first chance count more than most.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back almost 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett