5 SmackDown superstars who deserve a WWE Championship run
While every WWE superstar cannot always be given a run with one of the main titles in WWE, there are certainly opportunities to have a more diverse set of superstars as champions in the company.
Year-plus title reigns are things of the past, save for Brock Lesnar's bad runs as Universal Champion and CM Punk's reign a few years ago where he actually appeared and defended his title.
But if they can give Jinder Mahal a title reign, why can't someone like Samoa Joe or Shinsuke Nakamura be given a run with the belt?
The reigns don't have to span from SummerSlam to WrestleMania and they could easily switch things up between those two big PPVs.
WWE has often built up superstars like Samoa Joe and Rusev as dangerous threats only to consistently have them lose when the chips are all in.
Taking into account the current roster of SmackDown, here are five superstars who could have held the WWE Championship at some point and who are more than deserving to do so.
#5 Shinsuke Nakamura
If they really wanted to keep Nakamura, then he'd have either won the WWE Championship from AJ Styles or maintained the US Championship.
As it stood, he won it from Rusev at the Royal Rumble but lost it on the ensuing episode of SmackDown.
His contract is up at the end of April, just like the Usos. They gave the Usos the SmackDown Tag Team titles again, even after Jimmy Uso got arrested. Again.
Mr. McMahon either thinks there is no way Nakamura leaves WWE or he simply just doesn't care about him. He won last year's Royal Rumble but unsuccessfully challenged Styles for the title at WrestleMania 34.
Nakamura is a talent that would immediately be a main-eventer regardless of the promotion which he joined. If he opts not to re-sign, it wouldn't surprise me.
While he did win a Royal Rumble, a win in that match hasn't become a guaranteed sign of winning a championship like it has in the past.
The sheen has truly worn off of the King of Strong Style, but a longer and more meaningful run with a singles title would have kept him as a believable threat to any face champion.