10 Winners And Losers From WWE Fastlane 2018

On the final pay-per-view before the biggest match of his career, Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Rusev in the night's opening match. The first superstar through the curtain, he was treated like an enormous star for the first time in months. His victory over The Bulgarian Brute was followed by sign-pointing and a huge sell job by commentators Tom Phillips, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton.

One way to ensure that a guy is taken seriously in the main event role is by putting all of your efforts into pushing him to the forefront and using the tools at your disposal to present him or her as a big deal. WWE Creative did that Sunday night and the result was a red-hot audience that fully embraced him as a superstar on his way to capturing the top prize at WrestleMania on 8 April.

Nakamura struggled for months on SmackDown, unable to shake the "any other guy" aura and re-establish himself as the biggest rockstar on the blue brand. Now confident following his Royal Rumble, and with the momentum behind him, he should roll into New Orleans for the most significant match of his WWE stint and roll out the top dog on SmackDown.