Opinion: Shinsuke Nakamura Needs To Turn Face

Shinsuke Nakamura was one of the most popular superstars in all of Japan before he made his way to WWE in 2016. He took his popularity with him to both NXT and the main roster on WWE Smackdown in 2017.

Despite being super popular as the year began, WWE made the surprising decision to turn Shinsuke Nakamura heel at WrestleMania, following his unsuccessful WWE Championship match with AJ Styles. As Shinsuke was so popular, many wondered, could he pull it off?

While he did provide some comical moments with his 'No Speak English' shtick, overall I would have to say that the Nakamura heel turn has been a bit of a failure. And no, that is not a knock on Shinsuke's ability to perform as heel, but more so at how WWE has booked him as a heel.

Shinsuke Nakamura has been one of wrestling's best performers for at least a decade now, but the problem he faces today is that his heel run is limiting his performances, as he has now made the 'low blow' his trademark and often uses it for a quick ending to a match, as witnessed at Extreme Rules in his minute-long match with Jeff Hardy.

Amazingly, Shinsuke's feud with AJ Styles was pretty underwhelming. While they did have 6 televised matches, they ranged from disappointing to pretty good, but nowhere near the same level as their epic from Wrestle Kingdom. A big reason as to why many of these matches failed to meet expectations, was because they had Shinsuke reply a lot on using the low blow as a way to try win, and thus he was using less and less of incredible skill as a performer.

If Shinsuke was to turn face again, he would stop using low blows and other under-handed tactics and return to his former ways. Shinsuke also has better match options as a babyface, as he has already run through most of Smackdown's top face superstars.