Best Ways to Rebuild Shinsuke Nakamura's Momentum After WrestleMania 2018

AJ Styles staved off a massive challenge from Shinsuke Nakamura at WrestleMania 34 in New Orleans on Sunday to retain the WWE Championship.

Capping off a back-and-forth affair, Nakamura attempted to put the finishing touch on the match by hitting the Kinshasa knee. However, Styles countered and somehow got Nakamura in position for the Styles Clash. Styles hit his finisher and earned the pinfall:

Nakamura wasn't gracious in defeat. While kneeling to hand Styles the WWE Championship in what appeared to be a show of sportsmanship, Nakamura instead delivered a low blow and kicked Styles out of the ring:

Nakamura ended his post-match attack with a Kinshasa to Styles on the outside.

Nakamura was potentially in danger of fading into oblivion despite his fantastic performance, but WWE undoubtedly has the means to help him bounce back from the loss and remain near the top of the card. At the very least, the rivalry between Nakamura and Styles is far from over.

WWE doesn't have the greatest track record of pushing foreign-born stars into the main event and keeping them there over the long haul. In fact, it can be argued that the writers struggled to present Nakamura in an effective way until he won the Royal Rumble.

Although Nakamura did have victories over the likes of John Cena and Randy Orton, he lost a feud to Jinder Mahal.

The Artist also wasn't given much mic time or opportunity to convey his character to the WWE Universe, which essentially forced the fans to dig into Nakamura's past to truly understand why he is such a special competitor.

Things began to change during the build to WrestleMania, as Nakamura had multiple interactions with Styles and broadened the depth of his persona.

Most notably, Nakamura attempted to play mind games with The Phenomenal One by constantly telling him that he would beat him at The Showcase of the Immortals with a knee to the face.

Two weeks prior to WrestleMania, Nakamura had a chance to lay out Styles with a Kinshasa, but he opted against it, which showed that he had effectively gotten inside Styles' head.

Even though Nakamura fell short in his attempt to become champion, WWE must continue to book him in a similar manner rather than simply telling the fans that he is "unique" and expecting them to take the company at face value without any proof or effort.

Regardless of how WWE builds Nakamura, his in-ring performance at WrestleMania shows that he can get and keep the WWE Universe on his side simply by putting on memorable matches against other top-flight Superstars.

One of the biggest keys to rebuilding Nakamura's momentum will be finding him an ideal opponent to feud with over the coming weeks and months.

Nakamura has largely feuded with everyone on SmackDown Live, but with a Superstar Shake-up on the horizon, there could be some new blood infused into the blue brand soon, or Nakamura could possibly move over to Raw.

The biggest wild card in the mix is SmackDown general manager Daniel Bryan, who is back in the fold as an active in-ring competitor.

Both Nakamura and Bryan have spoken openly about their desires to face each other, and a rivalry between them would go a long way toward putting Nakamura back in a position where he can challenge for and win the title.

It is possible that WWE will wait until SummerSlam to put on a match of that caliber, especially since it is unclear exactly how often Bryan will compete after so much time away from the ring.

Although a transitional feud before that is possible, WWE can't afford to let Nakamura fall into a rut in much the same way he did when he feuded with Mahal.

Continuing his rivalry with Styles for a pay-per-view or two would solve that problem since they are guaranteed to have excellent matches, but the best way to guarantee that Nakamura stays over and continues to be viewed as one of WWE's franchise players is building to a dream match against Bryan in the near future.

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