8 Key Victories In 2019 That WWE Never Followed Up On
7. Ali Beats Shinsuke Nakamura (SmackDown Live, July 30)
After an untimely injury cost Ali his rightful shot at the WWE Championship back in February, it would have been only logical for him to challenge Kofi Kingston for the title coming out of WrestleMania 35. Apparently, he's perfectly content settling for midcard mediocrity and not aiming any higher (from a storyline standpoint, of course).
He's instead spent the past six months doing much of nothing. The closest he came to getting involved in an actual storyline was when he beat Intercontinental champion Shinsuke Nakamura in non-title action on the July 30 episode of SmackDown Live. It was a quality contest, but it was clear they were holding back in case they clashed for the championship at SummerSlam.
Despite it being a logical addition to the event card, the bout was never booked. In fact, the feud was dropped altogether.
Only recently has it looked like they could be revisiting the rivalry heading into Hell in a Cell (based off Nakamura's attack on Ali last week), but WWE really should have gone in that direction sooner. It's not as if Nakamura was busy with someone higher up on the card seeing as how his feud with The Miz ended almost as quickly as it started.