{"id":143169,"date":"2025-10-10T08:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T12:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=143169"},"modified":"2025-10-10T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T14:00:00","slug":"shinsuke-nakamura-returns-on-wwe-smackdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2025\/10\/10\/shinsuke-nakamura-returns-on-wwe-smackdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Shinsuke Nakamura Returns on WWE SmackDown"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the sixth straight week, United States Champion Sami Zayn extended another “U.S. Open Challenge” to anyone willing to go up against the “Underdog of the Underground” and try their hand at prying away the gold on WWE SmackDown<\/a>. Over the weeks, many have tried and failed, names like Carmelo Hayes, Rey Fenix, Je’Von Evans, and even the “GOAT” himself, John Cena. As such, the train keeps on rolling, with Zayn welcoming the challenge to anyone brave enough to step up to the plate. Unfortunately for Sami, someone stepped up that he never thought would in the form of former United States Champion, Shinsuke Nakamura.<\/p>\n

Before Sami Zayn made his debut on the main roster, he and Nakamura had an absolute classic at NXT Takeover: Dallas back in 2016, on Shinsuke Nakamura’s debut in WWE NXT. Most consider it one of the greatest NXT matches of all time. Through the years, these two have cultivated classics, but we haven’t seen one in a while, making Nakamura’s return to answer the U.S. Open Challenge a much-welcomed surprise.<\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s been months since the WWE Universe has seen Nakamura, with the former NXT Champion last appearing in a WWE SmackDown ring for a King of the Ring qualifying match on the June 13th, 2025 edition of the show, going up against Andrade, Damian Priest, and eventual tournament winner, Cody Rhodes. Now, the “King of Strong Style” is back and better than ever<\/a>, and he’s up against, arguably, a man who is his equal.<\/p>\n

More From LWOS Pro Wrestling<\/b><\/strong><\/p>\n

Header photo \u2013 WWE \u2013 Stay tuned to the\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> for more on Shinsuke Nakamura and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

You can check out WWE programming on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Netflix<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Raw),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>USA Network<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(SmackDown),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>The CW<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(NXT),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Tubi<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Evolve),\u00a0<\/i><\/em>A&E<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(WWE Superstar Sunday \u2013 Rivals, WWE LFG, and Greatest Moments), and\u00a0<\/i><\/em>Peacock<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a> (WWE Main Event, as well as archives and premium live event streaming). Follow WWE on social media to relive top moments and matches on\u00a0<\/i><\/em>YouTube<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>, and catch fast-paced action on X (<\/i><\/em>WWE Speed<\/i><\/u><\/em><\/a>).<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the sixth straight week, United States Champion Sami Zayn extended another “U.S. Open Challenge” to anyone willing to go up against the “Underdog of the Underground” and try their hand at prying away the gold on WWE SmackDown. Over the weeks, many have tried and failed, names like Carmelo Hayes, Rey Fenix, Je’Von Evans, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3735,"featured_media":143629,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2192,26,4,3],"tags":[106,118],"class_list":["post-143169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wrestling","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-sami-zayn","tag-shinsuke-nakamura"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3735"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143169"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143677,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143169\/revisions\/143677"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143629"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}