Report: Here’s Why Shinsuke Nakamura Didn’t Win The WWE Title

Shinsuke Nakamura won the 2018 Royal Rumble, last eliminating Roman Reigns, to earn a shot at the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34. After losing to AJ Styles, Nakamura immediately turned heel, hitting Styles with a low-blow. Though the feud was heated and lasted months, Nakamura came away empty-handed, failing to win the WWE Championship despite having multiple opportunities to do so.

In 2017, Shinsuke Nakamura was called up to the main roster, debuting on SmackDown Live. He first feuded with Dolph Ziggler, as is customary, before gaining some momentum in the summer months by defeating John Cena and Randy Orton in stellar TV matches. Nakamura would use these wins to enter the WWE Championship scene, but he lost to Jinder Mahal at SummerSlam and Hell in a Cell in two subpar matches.

Nakamura’s rise didn’t begin until his Royal Rumble victory, but he didn’t truly become a star until turning heel on AJ Styles after his WWE Championship loss at WrestleMania 34. The two would battle at the Greatest Royal Rumble, Backlash, and in a Last Man Standing match at Money in the Bank. Although Nakamura defeated Styles in a television match to select the stipulation at MITB, he never once defeated Styles in a title match on Pay Per View.

Most fans believed that Nakamura would eventually win the title, but Styles shocked some by retaining in the Last Man Standing match. The Wrestling Standard’s Harry Austen reports that Nakamura is not WWE Champion for a number of reasons.

Firstly, Austen reports WWE chose to cut the Nakamura/Styles program “short”, which is an interesting way of looking at it, because many fans believed the feud lasted longer than it should have.

Secondly, Austen reports that the original plan was for Nakamura to win the WWE Championship before losing it to Styles, but WWE didn’t want to flip-flop the title (this is something they’ve made sure to avoid doing with their world titles as of late). They also reportedly wanted to keep the title around Styles, because he is the cover star for WWE2K19.

All of this makes sense, and it’s further indication of just how much WWE believes in Styles as a champion. His reign doesn’t seem like it will come to a close soon, though Samoa Joe is always lurking in the background.

As for Nakamura, his inability to capture the WWE Championship has been frustrating, but there’s no issue here, at least in my view. Nakamura’s character work as a heel has been exceptional, and he should be one of the best United States Champions in recent memory. He has a match against Jeff Hardy scheduled for Extreme Rules, and he’s expected to win the US Title.

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Read the full report from The Wrestling Standard for information on how the WWE’s decision-making has affected recent call-up Andrade “Cien” Almas, who has been seen on television sparingly over the past month.