WWE: 5 Bold Predictions for the SmackDown Live After WrestleMania 35

1.  Shinsuke Nakamura Will Re-Establish Himself

In my WrestleMania Wish List piece, I wished that Asuka would re-establish herself as the killer we grew to love during her time in NXT.  I’m predicting a similar happening for Shinsuke Nakamura for the SmackDown after WrestleMania 35.

Like Asuka, Nakamura is a killer, and more-established one in the professional wrestling industry.  His debut in NXT was so hot because of the smart NXT fans being fully-aware of who he is; that electricity was carried with Nakamura into his initial implementation into the main roster.

Instead of being the “King of Strong Style” we knew in NJPW and NXT, WWE made him an “artist”.  I don’t recall him doing anything artistic besides pulsating body movements that made him appear artistic (I guess).  His natural charisma carried this weak gimmick (if you even want to call it that) to a Royal Rumble win and a shot at AJ Styles’s WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34.  However, he has been somewhat of an afterthought since.

Nakamura remains one of professional wrestling’s top in-ring performers.  There is no way that WWE does not know what they have in him, and I look for him to re-establish himself as the killer “King of Strong Style” he is on the first SmackDown after WrestleMania.  I see either a breaking from Rusev or a challenging of Samoa Joe and his (formerly Nakamura’s) United States Championship.  Either way (or some other way), Shinsuke Nakamura will be given a clean slate to remind us just what made him the hottest commodity in professional wrestling when first signed.