Shinsuke Nakamura may have fallen short of capturing the WWE World Heavyweight Champion tonight for the second time in the last month, but the man walked out of Fastlane looking so much better in the hierarchy of WWE than he did before this feud with Seth Rollins began. 

Let me remind you that, for quite some time, Nakamura was nowhere. He was floating around in the WWE Universe without much of a purpose. Oh, sure — he still had killer entrance music that fans loved, but what else has there been to him? Nakamura hasn’t been relevant in WWE for quite some time. That has changed rather quickly. Nakamura has been in two consecutive WWE PLE main events. He has been a viable threat in each. There were quite a number of people who believed he might actually have a chance to walk away with the title in one of those Rollins encounters. 

That’s how you elevate talent and rebuild those who were once lost. Nakamura once again has credibility to his name, and it feels like we’re seeing a version of the Superstar we haven’t seen in wrestling in a long time. Even in defeat, Nakamura looks like a winner here.