Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
Shinsuke Nakamura defeated LA Knight at WWE Survivor Series: WarGames this past Saturday night. For someone like myself, that was a complete and utter shock. I just assumed Nakamura’s 7 month absence and rushed feud with Knight was to give Knight someone to beat, rather than for the title to change hands. History has shown with Nakamura that any time he wins one of these midcard titles, he tends to not have a great reign, as WWE just ignores him for weeks at a time. On top of that, we’ve got WrestleMania season just around the corner.
To say I’m baffled about what WWE has in store for this title in the near future is an understatement. I’m not opposed to Nakamura having a run, but it’s not something I would have figured was on the schedule, and I’m struggling to see where this is heading.
My question for you today is “Who do you think should beat Shinsuke Nakamura for the United States championship, and when? Should he hold it until WrestleMania 41 or longer? When, where, and to whom should he drop that title?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
Back to my bewilderment, I look at the SmackDown roster right now and I think “Wow. There aren’t any straightforward options.” Let’s break them down in more detail.
We can assume Nakamura is staying heel and that it is highly unlikely anyone of prominent enough note who is currently a heel turns babyface, feuds with him, and beats him for the title any time soon. Even still, I’ll throw out the heels AND the babyfaces for acknowledgement.
AJ Styles is injured and we have no clue when or even if he’ll return to action. Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin are the tag team champions. #DIY’s Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, as well as The Street Profits (Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins) are still tag teams, and 3 of those 4 are even teasing heel turns. I’ll come back to Gargano.
Andrade? I don’t think he’ll be the next champion. Carmelo Hayes? Heel. Austin Theory and Grayson Waller are heels and a tag team. Legado del Fantasma’s trio are a heel stable. Giovanni Vinci is a heel and a jobber who we don’t even see anymore. Pretty Deadly is a heel tag team that we can rule out.
Apollo Crews? I highly, highly doubt it. Logan Paul is a heel and we don’t know when he’ll be back. Any member of Solo Sikoa’s Bloodline? Why would they beat Nakamura for the title instead of it still being on LA Knight? That’d be an odd route to take.
Ruling out Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, and Randy Orton as being too big for this, and eliminating Kevin Owens for the same reason as well as how he’s a heel, the only other name we’re left with is Jimmy Uso.
Effectively, that does narrow it down to Johnny Gargano, Jimmy Uso, LA Knight just wins it back, or someone is traded over from Raw or NXT. That latter option is not only a stretch, but it’s also one that I can’t picture a go-to option for, either.
When it comes to Jimmy Uso, I think it’d be weird for him to suddenly start feuding with Nakamura during this story with The Bloodline Civil War. It was already weird enough with Jey Uso randomly winning the Intercontinental Championship from Bron Breakker for a hot minute; to do the same with Jimmy just to I guess give him a singles title of his own would be very transparent and he’d probably lose it immediately after to someone like Jacob Fatu anyway.
LA Knight winning it back is not my preferred option, either. I didn’t even think Knight had a lot of momentum on his side before losing it. He was on a downward slope of WWE just not really doing much with him. Having him lose just to regain the title wouldn’t be some great comeback story. The way he lost this felt more like a dig at him than some story.
At this point, I have to root for Gargano, which means I also have to root for a split from Ciampa. I don’t necessarily like that, but I would like to see both of them holding singles gold, so if this is what that endgame is, then I can maybe sign off on it.
I wouldn’t be in this position right now if I were on WWE Creative, but if I were hired today and tasked to come up with a plan for the next few months, here’s what I’d do:
The rest of December is spent breaking up Ciampa and Gargano, which doesn’t quite come to a head, but is more of a parting of ways where Ciampa says he’s done being in a tag team. Nakamura has a rematch with Knight and retains. January comes along and there’s a battle royal to determine Nakamura’s next challenger, wherein the final 3 are Gargano, Ciampa, and Carmelo Hayes. Something happens where Ciampa assumes Gargano is going to work with him, but after some miscommunication (that is Ciampa’s fault), Hayes takes out Ciampa. Gargano takes out Hayes and wins the title shot. Ciampa is pissed.
At Royal Rumble, a decision has to be made in what fashion WWE wants to take WrestleMania. If it’s going to be a multi-man match that includes Nakamura, then Gargano has to come up short due to interference from an angry Ciampa. In the scenario where Nakamura isn’t prioritized, Gargano beats Nakamura and Shinsuke is just a transitional champion to set up what would likely be Gargano versus Ciampa at Mania, with Ciampa winning the title.
If it’s a multi-man match, I’d probably make it Nakamura, Gargano, Ciampa, Hayes, Knight and maybe Andrade for a Six-Pack Challenge, with Nakamura walking in as champion and someone else walking out with the title like Hayes, if they want to bypass Gargano/Ciampa in singles competition.
If it ends up just being Shinsuke Nakamura in singles competition at WrestleMania 41 defending this title, I have no idea who WWE has in mind to fill in that slot. Nobody comes across to me like an obvious pick that would feel important enough, as I don’t have a lot of faith both Nakamura and his eventual opponent will be built up well enough in the coming months to make me salivate over something like Nakamura vs Andrade or whatever.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
