5 possible finishes to the Shinsuke Nakamura vs John Cena #1 Contender Match
When John Cena waltzed in to rain on Jinder Mahal's WWE Championship parade this past week on Smackdown Live to challenge the Modern Day Maharaja to a title match at WWE Summerslam 2016, we all thought that the Face that Runs the Place was going to get exactly what he wanted: A chance at breaking The Nature Boy Ric Flair's record of 16 World Championships.
Instead, what we got was a surprise announcement by Smackdown Live General Manager Daniel Bryan that Cena would have to face off against a certain Shinsuke Nakamura in a #1 Contender's match to determine who gets the right to fight Mahal for the WWE Championship.
This interesting development has not only given the WWE Universe a dream match to look forward to this week, it has also given us a chance to speculate as to how this match is going to play out and what the creative team has in store for the end. Which one of these two great superstars is going to get a shot at the ultimate prize in sports entertainment?
So, without any further ado, here is our list of 5 possible finishes for the #1 Contender match between Shinsuke Nakamura and John Cena:
#5 John Cena wins clean
It seems like John Cena isn't really primed to win this contest. If they wanted to give him a WWE Title opportunity one on one against Jinder Mahal, there is no reason to really involve Shinsuke Nakamura and make him eat a loss.
This would severely curtail The King of Strong Styles' momentum while bringing us back down to the same match that was originally announced by Cena last week. It is weak storytelling and doesn't make too much sense.
But, on the other hand, we have to keep in mind that this is John Cena that we're dealing with here. Sure, he might have gotten a little more generous with his losses to top stars over the past couple of years but that doesn't excuse his history of burying talent.
In my opinion, this would be the worst decision and could kill off all hopes of having Nakamura become the main event player we know he can be.