4 Reasons why Shinsuke Nakamura's US Title reign has been underwhelming
It's been more than 70 days since Shinsuke Nakamura won the WWE United States Championship in a decidedly nefarious fashion. With the help of a low blow, he was able to win the title in a mere six seconds. Surely such a decisive victory would bode well for the title, yes?
Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case here. Nakamura is a talented wrestler, and he is surrounded by other talented wrestlers, but for some reason, his reign hasn't taken off the way many expected it would. Here are four reasons why this reign has been sort of lackluster.
#4 Lack of credible challengers
When you look at the Smackdown roster, it's easy to see the imbalance on the roster. Ever since Nakamura, Randy Orton, and even Aiden English turned to the dark side, there's not a whole lot of options for the King of Strong Style to face.
AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan, Rusev, and the New Day are all preoccupied, and Jeff Hardy is seemingly out of action after dropping from the ceiling of Hell in a Cell and breaking a table with his face.
Without them, that leaves Tye Dillinger, Sin Cara, and R-Truth as the only available babyface singles competitors. That's not a whole lot of competition.
Sure, it wouldn't be too difficult to have, say, Karl Anderson or Jimmy Uso challenge Nakamura, but tag team wrestlers going after a singles title rarely happens unless they break up with their team or something.
Of course, WWE could also book heel vs heel matches (Nakamura v. Shelton Benjamin or Andrade Almas), but again, these are also rare.
That leaves the United States Championship in sort of a weird spot. Who challenges for the title next?