The feud between Shinsuke Nakamura and AJ Styles didn't set the world on fire like many had hoped. When the bout was first announced for WrestleMania, most pegged it as the Match of the Night and a potential Match of the Year candidate. Instead, it was the first chapter of an extended rivalry. Nakamura turned on Styles at WrestleMania, leading a series of matches that ended via disqualification before the two finally settled things in a last man standing match.
Even Nakamura felt they had left something on the table.
“I wanted to do more for the first time on WWE. I think I could show myself more against AJ. But still, I liked getting the chance against AJ,” Nakamura told TV Insider. “After WrestleMania I became the heel, but I didn’t show everything. Just a little bit.”
The feud led to Nakamura adopting a heel persona that included throwing a low blow at any chance he got. In the interview, Nakamura revealed that it was not his idea to use the low blow to get heat.
“I wanted to say the idea came from myself, but it’s not true. I don’t want to say who it was. Everybody can imagine,” he said. "It was awesome because when I hit the low blow at WrestleMania, all the Japanese fans were shocked. The people in the arena were loud. They were like, ‘Yeah!’ You have a good side and bad side, real side. Then I put that on in the ring. My character, my personality in the ring came from heel stuff.”
After concluding his feud with Styles, Nakamura continued to use the low blow to his advantage. He defeated Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules to win the United States Title. Despite being the champion, Nakamura does not have a featured role on SmackDown at the moment.
