5 Reasons why Rusev wrestling Shinsuke Nakamura is a classic rivalry in the making
Two of the most entertaining yet underappreciated Superstars in all of professional wrestling today, Rusev and Shinsuke Nakamura, were involved in an extremely interesting segment on this week's episode of SmackDown Live (November 27th, 2018).
The reigning WWE United States Champion, Shinsuke Nakamura, was scheduled to face Rusev in a non-title matchup on SmackDown Live, and it was "The Artist" who made his entrance first. With Nakamura waiting in his corner, Rusev came down to the ring and looked to the hard camera side -- doing his usual entrance pose by ripping off his "Rusev Day" tank top.
Nakamura took advantage of that, and knocked Rusev down, with a brutal kick to the back of "The Bulgarian Brute's" head. The Japanese megastar then proceeded to hit a badly stunned Rusev with a Kinshasa -- sending the latter outside the ring. The Japanese phenom's assault didn't stop there though, as he attacked Rusev with another Kinshasa, this time outside the ring!
Needless to say, "The Artist" vs. "The Bulgarian Brute" is the next big feud on SmackDown Live, and today, we take a closer look at a select few factors which prove that Rusev taking on Shinsuke Nakamura is a classic rivalry in the making...
#5 Rusev is adding some much-needed excitement to Shinsuke Nakamura's relatively ho-hum US Title reign
Shinsuke Nakamura faced Jeff Hardy at the Extreme Rules PPV (July 15th, 2018), and with the United States Championship on the line, Nakamura pulled out all the stops -- savagely hitting Hardy with a nasty low blow, and striking "The Charismatic Enigma's" head with a beautiful Kinshasa, to secure the pinfall victory.
Understandably, most of us were very excited to see Nakamura win his first WWE main roster title, but the weeks that followed were quite disappointing, to say the least.
Nakamura successfully defended his US Title against Hardy at the SummerSlam PPV (August 19th, 2018), and then lost to Hardy via Disqualification due to Outside Interference by Randy Orton in a non-title match on SmackDown Live (September 11th, 2018).
Following that, Nakamura's next title defense came against Rusev on SmackDown Live (September 18th, 2018), after which Nakamura lost a non-title match to Rey Mysterio at SmackDown 1000 (October 16th, 2018). However, Nakamura bounced back by once again by successfully defending his title against R-Truth on SmackDown Live (October 30th, 2018), and by beating Rusev in a US Title match at the Crown Jewel event (November 2nd, 2018).
Unfortunately, Nakamura lost his momentum again, after he was beaten "clean" by the RAW brand's Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins at the Survivor Series PPV (November 18th, 2018).
Let's face it, Nakamura's reign as the United States Champion has been quite ho-hum thus far, and what he desperately needs right now, is a meaningful storyline and a feud with one top SmackDown Live Superstar -- in this case, Rusev -- rather than randomly being booked against different Superstars every week...