10 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE SmackDown (Jan 29)
3. Shinsuke Nakamura Underdelivers... Again
The table was set for a fast, frantic Shinsuke Nakamura vs. R-Truth match. It was a sudden piece of booking, and while their combined age is 85 years old, the short runtime should have allowed them to concoct an adrenaline-driven title change.
What we got wasn't bad; just bland. Nakamura couldn't break out of second gear. His opponent wasn't much better, but while the bout told the concise story of Shinsuke clearly operating on a higher level than Truth but falling through not taking the former K-Kwik seriously enough, the bell-to-bell was skippable.
A messy finish saw Nakamura escape Truth's small package a second too late, prompting much confusion around the arena. Post-replay, it was decreed that the challenger had won. Shinsuke protested, and a shocked Truth celebrated, only to be interrupted by Rusev and Lana moments later.
More on Truth's victory later in the article. The match was dull, though.