10 Reasons Shinsuke Nakamura's WWE Run Will Fail
5. Suitable Competition
Not least because they've already burned through matches against Kevin Owens and his historic on-screen reunion with AJ Styles, SmackDown Live! already looks brutally thin on the ground for talent Nakamura can feasibly feud with to generate creatively stimulating and commercially viable matches.
The narrow parameters from which WWE seem insistent on forcing their performers into may be just too oppressive for Shinsuke. He's an undeniably charismatic performer, but unlike fellow New Japan Pro Wrestling alumni AJ Styles, he doesn't possess the jaw-dropping range and lucid variation to stretch the company's formulaic designs.
It's tough to see Nakamura having a truly great match with Baron Corbin for example, or WWE Champion Jinder Mahal should the two ever compete for the company's once-biggest prize. On the scant evidence provided, it's hard to foresee a NXT TakeOver: Dallas rematch with Sami Zayn coming anywhere close to the original once the usual crop of cooks pile in to spoil the broth.
Booked as a delicately deadly destroyer in New Japan, Nakamura has been forced into more of a traditional WWE babyface role even during his time in NXT, but matches on defence against Bobby Roode still hugely outperformed the similar story he attempted to tell alongside Dolph Ziggler.