After beating Rusev at WWE Fastlane on Sunday, Shinsuke Nakamura should be among the featured parts of SmackDown programming every week until WrestleMania 34 on April 8.
Nakamura picked up the victory over Rusev after hitting a pair of Kinshasa knees to the Bulgarian Brute. The first came when Nakamura countered out of an attempted Accolade and kneed Rusev in the back of the neck. Nakamura finished the job with another knee to Rusev's head for the win.
WWE showed the former NXT champion pointing to his future with Rusev out of the way:
Nakamura won the Royal Rumble to become the No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship, and he is set to compete in one of the main events on The Grandest Stage of Them All.
While winning the Rumble was huge for Nakamura in terms of giving him credibility on the main roster, it has been a double-edged sword of sorts.
Since everyone already knew that Nakamura was going to vie for the title at WrestleMania, and AJ Styles was focused on defending the WWE Championship against five other Superstars at Fastlane, he was a background character for the past several weeks.
Nakamura appeared on SmackDown here and there, with his most notable inclusions coming in backstage segments with Styles.
The King of Strong Style told The Phenomenal One in passing that he would beat him at WrestleMania so as to keep the match firmly in the minds of the fans.
He was also involved in an entertaining interview with Rusev to set up their Fastlane match one week after he defeated Aiden English in a singles affair.
Perhaps the most effective use of Nakamura in the weeks leading up to Fastlane, however, was in a video package that highlighted his career and his accomplishments since joining WWE.
Nakamura's time as NXT champion and the lead-up to him winning the Royal Rumble was covered, and it made him look like a legitimate top guy with a great chance of winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.
Although Nakamura is oozing with natural charisma and is supremely talented, the transition to the main roster has been a bit turbulent since WWE tends to struggle with booking Superstars who don't have the best grasp on the English language.
Videos are a great way to counteract that, and continuing to play them during the build toward WrestleMania would be great for Nakamura.
Diving even deeper into his background as a wrestler in Japan and his time as a mixed martial artist would help tremendously in letting the WWE Universe see why he is such a dangerous competitor in addition to being an entertaining character.
WWE would also be wise to feature him in some sit-down interview segments. He excelled in those in NXT, especially with Samoa Joe, and they could accentuate his strengths on the main roster as well since it would come across as a more natural environment than cutting a promo in the ring.
Nakamura doesn't need to say much in order to look good heading into WrestleMania, and he is generally better off doing the bulk of his talking physically anyway.
If WWE commits to creating video packages and vignettes focused on Nakamura and puts him in positions to succeed when he does get mic time, then he should enter WrestleMania with a ton of momentum, which would give the fans plenty of desire to see him win the WWE title.
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