After an absence of four months, Shinsuke Nakamura returned on Smackdown to answer Sami Zayn’s WWE United States title open challenge.

Nakamura came out to his old theme song and received a decent pop from the Australian crowd. The two had a great match until they were interrupted by the returning MFTs, who decimated both Nakamura and Zayn.

This was the Japanese star’s first match on WWE television since the June 13 episode of Smackdown where he was involved in a fatal four-way match along with Andrade, Damian Priest, and Cody Rhodes in the King of the Ring tournament.

Nakamura’s opportunities on television were very limited in 2025, and apart from a few appearances in March, he has not done much for the company so far.