5 Ups And 6 Downs From WWE Extreme Rules 2020

UPS…

5. From Lackeys To Champs

Nakamura Cesaro WWE Extreme Rules
WWE.com

Cesaro and Shinsuke Nakamura have had a weird, meandering ride through WWE. The two are among the most athletically gifted wrestlers on the roster, and yet they’ve never reached the mountaintop.

In fact, Nak and the Swiss Cyborg have spent more time as glorified enhancement talent to top-level stars than as dominant acts themselves. They were Sami Zayn’s muscle as he ran his mouth for months, and after he disappeared, they spent some time inexplicably backing up King Corbin, because why not?

Sunday night, the duo got to shine a bit on their own, capturing the SmackDown Tag Team Championship by knocking off the New Day. Better yet, the win came somewhat decisively in a tables match. It wasn’t a fluky victory or some underhanded tactic that led to the win: Kofi Kingston went for a rana off the top rope to put Cesaro through a table stack on the outside, but Cesaro overpowered him and powerbombed Kofi through the tables for the titles.

It’s good to see Nakamura & Cesaro rewarded with a tag title reign after spending months being under-utilized. Hopefully, they’ll get the chance to turn in a decent run with the straps.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.