3. Shinsuke Nakamura
httpss://youtube.com/watch?v=FXkz1P2viMM
This is an interesting one as Nakamura hit the ground at a full on sprint with an amazing match against Sami Zayn at “Takeover: Dallas”, went on to defeat Finn Balor and then went on to become NXT Champion by the end of the summer. After that things started to go downhill a bit as he traded the title with Samoa Joe before coming out with it again.
However, Nakamura hit the ground running so hard and was so much better than most of the roster for the majority of the year that it’s hard to argue against him being so high up on a list like this. The key here is that Nakamura comes off as a major star and just destroyed so many big NXT names. It was even better because someone caught up with him and gave Nakamura a great feud.
Nakamura seems destined for the main roster in a hurry and that’s a good thing. His signing back in January was one of the top news stories of the year and he’s certainly lived up to the hype so far. I’ve had a great time watching Nakamura kick and knee people very hard and when he’s on his game with someone who can hang with him, he’s one of the most entertaining acts in wrestling.