4 WWE Superstars who are surprisingly staying on SmackDown Live

#3 Shinsuke Nakamura

It is fair to say that things have not gone according to plan for Shinsuke Nakamura since he was called up from NXT to be part of the SmackDown Live roster in April 2017. Granted, he won the 2018 Royal Rumble, but the aura he had during his time in NJPW and NXT has completely disappeared.

“The King of Strong Style” has been involved in underwhelming rivalries with Dolph Ziggler, Baron Corbin, Jinder Mahal, AJ Styles and Rusev since joining SmackDown Live, while his United States Championship reign in 2018 only lasted so long (163 days) because he barely appeared on television.

Having already been involved in the WWE Championship, United States Championship and SmackDown Tag Team Championship pictures, the 2019 Shake-Up seemed like the right moment to move Nakamura over to Raw and try to kick-start his career on a different brand.

However, after he did not appear on Monday’s episode of Raw, it looks like his tag team losing streak with Rusev will continue on SmackDown Live.