Shinsuke Nakamura resurfaced on WWE SmackDown last week after another hiatus, and he used the return to hint at a new tag team partner. Hiromu Takahashi is the name attached to the headline, but the immediate business is simpler: Nakamura is back in the lineup and pointed his next move at the MFTs.
The timing follows his last match on the May 22 edition of SmackDown, when the MFTs attacked him after a loss to Talla Tonga. That sequence gave WWE a clean restart for Nakamura’s direction, and it put the unresolved part of the angle front and center: who he plans to bring with him.
May 22 leaves a new target
May 22 is the date that set this in motion. Nakamura last wrestled then, and the attack that followed gave the MFTs an immediate claim on the story before his return on WWE SmackDown last week reopened it.
The former United States Champion has held that title three times and the Intercontinental Title two times, so his return is not just a cameo. It puts a decorated main roster name back into a revenge program instead of leaving him in a holding pattern after the hiatus.
Backlash 2017 and the missed lane
2017 is still the reference point for Nic Nemeth, who wrestled Nakamura at Backlash 2017 in Chicago in a 16-minute back-and-forth match. Nemeth said, “He was big. Everyone was singing his song on the entrance,” then added, “I'm like, 'Holy s***, this is incredible.' Let's do 90 seconds and he knocks me out. I'll pop one of my fake teeth out. I'll spit a piece of gum, do something, like out cold. I think it would have helped, but man, Shinsuke is a killer. He's a sweetheart. That guy is so good. And I think they're redoing something now with him, but I wanted it to happen ten years ago.”
That same interview also pointed to the creative split that has followed Nakamura for years. Nemeth said he pitched an MMA-style finish for that match, while quoting Vince McMahon’s response as, “No, I want an old-school WWE match. I want it like 20 minutes for you guys, ten for you and ten for him.”
Nakamura and WWE reset
2020 gives one more marker for where Nakamura has landed when WWE gives him the right partner. He and Cesaro were SmackDown Tag Team Champions in 2020, which means the current tease is not a random pairing idea but a return to a lane he has already used effectively.
Last week’s return does the important part already: it moves Nakamura from pause to pursuit. If WWE follows through, the only detail that now carries the angle is the identity of the partner he says he has found for The MFTs.
