For the third time in his career, Shinsuke Nakamura has won the United States Championship!
At Survivor Series, Shinsuke dominated the former US Champion and got a clean pin that's rare for heels in the modern age. The WWE star made his return on the November 15 episode of Smackdown attacking LA Knight.
Every week since his return saw Nakamura get the better of the former US Champion. Since Shinsuke was gone for seven months, it made sense for the company to book him strongly since they wanted fans to believe that he was a credible threat for the United States title. But many assumed that the 44-year-old was just the challenger of the month until the referee hit the three count following a devastating kinshasa.
So after seven months away from the squared circle, why is Shinsuke Nakamura receiving a big push now?
According to Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer, Nakamura’s big title win pays a huge part in his upcoming match against Ulka Sasaki in Pro Wrestling NOAH:
“Shinsuke Nakamura’s U.S. title win was pushed big in NOAH because Nakamura vs. Ulka Sasaki will be on the NOAH 1/1 show at Budokan Hall.”
WWE seemingly wanted to elevate Nakamura’s profile before heading into the big match on January 1st. There’s no word on whether Nakamura’s push is a temporary moment or something long term besides the NOAH event.
Hopefully, it’s something long term as Nakamura has an interesting character going at the moment. He hasn’t had a big match at WrestleMania since his WWE Championship bout against AJ Styles at WrestleMania 34. It would be great if he walked into the biggest show in wrestling with a high level program. Nakamura has proven that he can elevate any program he's in as long as he's given something good to sink his teeth into.
As for LA Knight, there’s no word yet on where the former United States Champion will go following his shocking loss to Nakamura. It’s possible that these two will have a return match down the line, but that has yet to be confirmed.
LA Knight held the belt for a respectable 119 days and beat the likes of Carmelo Hayes, Andrade, and Berto to retain his belt. Despite the loss, it's been a big year for Knight and it'll be interesting to see where he goes once he's done with the U.S. title scene.