11 Things WWE Got Wrong In 2017

9. Shinsuke Nakamura On The Main Roster

Shinsuke Nakamura Dolph Ziggler
WWE.com

WWE was always going to get this one wrong, right?

Shinsuke Nakamura’s reigns as NXT Champion led many to believe that WWE would do right by the King of Strong Style on the main roster, and clean wins over Randy Orton and John Cena suggest it hasn’t all been a bust. Still, a DOA feud with Dolph Ziggler and ultimately coming up short against Jinder Mahal has left Nakamura as just another guy on Tuesday nights.

WWE’s obsession with ‘telling stories’ has often been to the detriment of its performers, and this is definitely true of Shinsuke Nakamura. Swagsuke got to where he is through his unique charisma and ability to tell stories in the ring, so adding racial overtones to a feud with Jinder Mahal was foolish at best. That debacle was made worse by the fact that Jinder won the feud - another example of a WWE heel being blatantly racist and not getting their comeuppance.

Shinsuke Nakamura is in a worse position at the end of 2017 than he was at the beginning of the year. Given the abundance of talent on WWE’s books, it is difficult to accept that.

Nakamura is a once-in-a-lifetime performer, but the company will not get the best out of him if it continues down its current path.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.