It was announced by Smackdown GM Daniel Bryan that John Cena will have a match against Nakamura on Smackdown next week to determine who will face Jinder Mahal at Summerslam. Basically, it is a number one contenders match because the winner will become the number one contender for Mahal.
However, I don’t understand why the WWE would book at match like this for free TV. It has been a dream match for a long time to see John Cena fight Nakamura in a WWE ring. However, people figured that their first time would be at one of the big four pay-per-views. I can’t think of someone who thought it was going to be on Smackdown. With that being said, I see a scenario playing out where we don’t get a clear winner and a triple threat match is announced between Jinder Mahal, John Cena, and Nakamura.
By doing this route, you ensure that neither Nakamura or John Cena takes a loss and you could tease something between them for a Wrestlemania or Summerslam. While I am sure there are fans who like the multi-men matches, I am not in some cases. The cases when I don’t like them is when they are booked poorly and I feel it is the creative’s way of getting many feuds on TV in one segment. Knowing how the WWE likes to book things, I see them somehow screwing this up. What I hope they do is have John Cena win the match and have Nakamura enter into a brief feud with AJ Styles for the US belt.
However, if the WWE goes this route in having a triple threat match for the WWE Championship and lets say that John Cena wins. I am hoping that it is a brief run and Baron Corbin cashes in on him to win the belt. I feel that Nakamura should have a belt in the WWE, I just don’t feel he is ready for the WWE title. It is not because he isn’t one of the better ring workers currently on the Smackdown brand. It is more due to the fact that English isn’t his first language and that could be a problem.
Also Nakamura accomplished a lot in Japan and doesn’t need the belt right now. Baron Corbin on the other hand kind of needs the belt in my opinion. He didn’t win a title while he was in NXT and has not done much on the main roster.