10 Reasons Shinsuke Nakamura's WWE Run Will Fail
8. Nothing Special
Shortly before the Dolph Ziggler match, WWE were commended for saving his debut for pay-per-view, and supported even more so for their decision to market the entire event around his arrival.
Despite the middling promo work from both (more on that later), keeping their match and Nakamura's in-ring prowess in general relatively fresh was an unusually patient move from a company prone to increasingly rash decisions in recent years.
Confining the duo to dark matches in between WrestleMania and Backlash, the company attempted to protect their investment through every traditional method, and splashed 'The King Of Strong Style' all over the marketing material for the show in an effort to build to his massive debut.
The follow-up however, was crushingly familiar. Nakamura appeared on the very next edition of SmackDown Live!, tagging with AJ Styles in a bang average main event that resembled a television taping dark freebie. He'd Kinshasa Kevin Owens twice more, remaining undefeated but not untarnished.
Slotting into backstage vignettes and segments such as the confirmation of his place in Money In The Bank, Nakamura became just another guy on the blue brand, falling into the trap he avoided for almost the entirety of his NXT run.