Shinsuke Nakamura arrived from WWE NXT to the main roster the Tuesday after WrestleMania 33. The ovation he received was amazing and his entrance was fantastic when he debuted on Wwe Smackdown Live. The following week, he had a small promo with Dolph Ziggler. Then this past week, he just had a video package play with his highlights. However, he has yet to wrestle. Every new addition to the blue brand has stepped foot in the ring, but not Nakamura. Many wonder why that it, and it is a valid question.

Nakamura is known as one of the best in-ring wrestlers on the planet.

Many fans were thrilled he came over from New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 2016, as no one expected him to ever leave. He was a massive star in Japan, but had a nice following around the world. Either way, going to the WWE was going to be a big transition. He would end up having amazing matches with Sami Zayn, Austin Aries, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, and Bobby Roode. This is on top of his two NXT Championship reigns.

Why is he not being allowed to wrestle on TV yet?

It is a loaded question, but the answer makes sense. According to The Wrestling Observer, WWE is trying to save his first match until Wwe Backlash when he takes on Dolph Ziggler. The idea is that it would lead to a huge reaction, similar to what he saw in Orlando.

Backlash takes place in Chicago, and it is known as a "mark crowd." This is a crowd filled with smarter fans who know about independent wrestlers and don't conform to the WWE ideals of everything and watch wrestling from all over. That said, they would know Nakamura very well and he will get a lot of love from Chicago, Illinois when he finally does wrestle.

WWE wants Shinsuke Nakamura to hold down a top babyface role, due to John Cena being gone for a while. It is expected that Cena will barely be around in 2017, so Nakamura being used there is essential to the WWE SmackDown Live brand. The feeling right now is that holding off his in-ring time will make people want to see him more and more, with an eventual match allowing us to see him bring his full arsenal for the world to see.

Despite his wrestling on television being nonexistent right now, he's still working live events and dark matches. In order to keep people around, WWE has been using Nakamura in dark matches when SmackDown Live and 205 Live ends. It is well known that people have been leaving after SmackDown Live and have not been sticking around for 205 Live. They're having Nakamura work with people like Ziggler at the end of the shows to keep people around, which is a smart move for WWE until Nakamura finally does work on television.

Sweeps month is coming too

Sweeps month is coming up soon, as this is time TV networks are watched the most to see what ratings they can pull in. Networks are then ranked based upon what they are able to bring in the months of which are being counted.

May, July, November, and February. Since WWE wants to make sure to bring big ratings in for USA Network, the channel they call home in the United States for WWE programming, they want to draw big ratings in May. In order to do that, they have to obviously put out must-watch material.

Holding off Nakamura's in-ring time until WWE Backlash is great. However, his official television debut would happen the Tuesday after. May 21st is when Backlash will go down, so May 23rd is when we would see Nakamura wrestle for the first time on television. This just so happens to fit within the sweeps month of May to help draw interest into the show for that week. In fact, we should not be shocked if WWE pulls a shocker at the event to make sure we watch on the Tuesday following to increase ratings.