The WWE Is Ruining... Shinsuke Nakamura

As a pro wrestling fan, it is a part of our identity to always know how to utilize wrestlers better than the WWE. If WWE would just give me, random WWE fan, a job a the company, ratings would immediately rise to the levels of the Monday Night Wars, despite how television ratings have changed as a whole over the last 20 years. But until that happens, WWE will continue ruining our favorite wrestlers, and that is why it is time to point out the error in their ways. Because of WWE's incompetence, I am literally going to pick a wrestler at random and point out how they could be better utilized, because WWE is ruining everyone in one way or another.

Today is one that despite coming from a far away land, is near and dear to my heart, Shinsuke Nakamura.

Let's just start off with this. Shinsuke Nakamura is one of the greatest pro wrestlers in history. His in ring charisma rivals Hulk Hogan, and he has had a plethora of incredibly entertaining matches throughout his career. That being said, Nakamura is now 38 years old, and he probably has lost a step since his wrestling prime. He's shown that he can be great, but he''s not rivaling Kenny Omega for the title of best wrestler in the world.

Although part of the issue is age, part of the issue is that the WWE style doesn't totally fit into what Nakamura does so well. A big part of his style in Japan was mat-based MMA style offense, which makes sense since Nakamura did have pro MMA fights before fully transitioning into pro wrestling. WWE has always stayed away from this style, but making Nakamura's matches seem more like fights instead of wrestling matches would probably help him captivate an audience with his in-ring work.

Although Nakamura has held the NXT Title, the US Title, and fought for the WWE Title, it has been filled with a lot of forgettable dreck. Although he has had good matches with AJ Styles and most recently, Seth Rollins, they aren't going to be remembered. In fact, if you asked me which Styles match was good, I could only respond with, "Uh, I know one of them was." He's managed to have one great match in his entire WWE run, and that was his very first match in NXT with Sami Zayn. If you are just a WWE fan, you know him more for low blows than great matches.

Still, Nakamura's greatest trait is his natural charisma. When he makes an entrance, it is an event in itself. He shows more personality without saying a word than anybody in WWE history. Which is good, because most WWE crowds are, how should I put this? We'll go with mildly racist, and mildly may be giving them too much credit. If you talk with an accent, they are going to yell "what" at you instead of listening to the interesting things you are saying. Although I think he has had some good promos, memorably being selective on when he understands English, and a really good recent promo where he talked about how his feelings were hurt that Seth Rollins only wanted to talk about Dean Ambrose, his promos are not built for the WWE. Foreigners have to be goofballs for fans to want to listen to them, and PLEASE GOD, do not make Nakamura a goofball.

Instead what the WWE needs to do is let the world know that he is better than anyone else in the WWE. I know that's extreme, but his matches should not be a battle of wills, but instead having his opponents go in as raging bulls with Nakamura as the matador, always a step ahead. Have him make things look easy, only letting his opponent get the upper hand when his arrogance leads to complacency in the ring. Just off the top of my head, you could put on an amazing feud with heel Daniel Bryan who gets more and more frustrated with Nakamura and uses nefarious means to even the odds, another match with Sami Zayn where Zayn just refuses to quit despite clearly being outgunned, and having a believable scenario where Nakamura picks apart Brock Lesnar as Lesnar has to find a way to get his hands on Shinsuke.

My wife only watches wrestling when we go to live shows. We have been lucky enough to see some incredible talent down in Florida between NXT and a variety of independent shows. Through all of the talent we have seen, Shinsuke Nakamura stands above everyone else as her favorite wrestler, because the dude has a PRESENCE. He is a transcendent talent, and the WWE needs to be doing more to capitalize on that. Just let the man be special, and everything else will take care of itself.

Other Wrestlers WWE Is Ruining
Alicia Fox
Andrade "Cien" Almas
Bobby Lashley
Charlotte Flair
Dana Brooke
Dash Wilder
Ember Moon
Jinder Mahal
Kane
Karl Anderson
Kofi Kingston
Luke Gallows
Mickie James
Mojo Rawley
Nia Jax
Peyton Royce
Randy Orton
Scott Dawson
Tyler Breeze