When Shinsuke Nakamura won the 2018 men's Royal Rumble, it set the stage for a highly anticipated WWE Championship showdown with A.J. Styles at WrestleMania 34.

The two superstars previously clashed at the Wrestle Kingdom 10 event for New Japan Pro-Wrestling on Jan. 4, 2016, where Nakamura emerged victorious. Two years later, fans across the world got to see a hyped up rematch on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

Given their world-class and elite in-ring skills, the Nakamura-Styles match carried extremely high expectations. Both superstars were shining as top-tier babyfaces on the SmackDown Live roster, too, so the WrestleMania crow in New Orleans had every reason to expect an instant class.

The match wasn't terrible by any means, but it certainly wasn't as jaw-dropping as fans expected. It lasted just over 20 minutes, with Styles finally scoring the pinfall victory on Nakamura to retain his WWE Championship.

The most memorable part of the bout was the aftermath, when Nakamura pulled off an unexpected heel turn by viciously attacking Styles.

So why didn't the Styles-Nakamura WrestleMania 34 bout reach the high expectations of the fans and wrestling prognosticators? Styles shared his take on After The Bell (h/t WrestlingInc.com):

"Expectations are way too high. I know Nakamura (thought so) too because no matter what we would have done in that match, the expectations were way too high. Here's what a lot of people don't understand. Crowd, fans, the WWE Universe, New Japan and all that stuff, their fans are everything. They're everything. They set the tone on what is a great match.

It's how they respond to it, and in Japan, they're so respectful. When they do respond, it's huge. Wow, this is such an amazing match, but had that same match been done in a WWE ring without the same response, it's not going to be declared as that great of a match. Fans are everything. They dictate a great match. It's just the reality and the truth of the whole thing, and a lot of people don't understand. The expectations, they were so high because what we did at Wrestle Kingdom. I was like, 'oh man.' I still think it was a great match."

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Styles would successfully retain his title over Nakamura in a rematch at the Greatest Royal Rumble, which ended in a double countout. Another anticipated showdown at Backlash met another lackluster ending - a draw when both superstars were unable to beat the referee's 10-second count.

They clashed again at Money in the Bank, and this one finally had a clean ending, with Styles emerging victorious in a last man standing bout.

Blame The Writers & Booking Decisions

Nakamura and Styles have always displayed fine in-ring chemistry. Why was their 2018 feud such a disappointment? It's easy. WWE creative insulted fans with such awful booking during the Nakamura-Styles program. Having WWE Championship matches end in double countouts or draws? That was always going to be a recipe for disappointment. It's disappointing that WWE never made the most of this feud, because it had all the makings to be something special.

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