I didn't see any of NXT Nakamura but I imagine WWE Nakamura would be about 20% New Japan Nakamura except when he goes into christ mode twice a year for Summerslam and Wrestlemania. The thing with Nakamura is he's nearly pure gaga as he doesn't strike me as being all that spectacular in a WWE ring. But I didn't see his NXT work, so I'm willing to be corrected on this thought.
Still Nakamura kicked out of all of Ziggler's big moves and it was about 60/40 Nakamura. Remember this was a match to give him street cred as he was in the ring with "two-time former champion Dolph Ziggler" so I don't think it would have done much for either guy if Nakamura to ate him up.
You give someone credibility (which is meaningless 'cos Jinder is a thing) by having them beat someone convincingly and cleanly.
Going ~50-50 with someone means that you are on their level. Going 80-20 with someone means you are a level above them. Ziggler has enough credibility (from his past, not his present) to lose a squash match 80-20, and put a guy into the upper tier of guys.
But they didn't do that. They basically said that Nakamura is about as good a Ziggler, and Ziggler is mostly a mid-card afterthought that no one actually cares about. That's not what you want to do.
If Nakamura had come in and had the same kind of match with Styles or Owens then it works. You'd be slotting him on par with the other top tier guys. Just how they did it with Owens on his debut with Cena. If Owens had debuted like he did, but faced Ziggler it wouldn't have done anything. It would have just have said he was a mid-card guy who had a competitive match with a mid-card guy.
