6 Ups & 1 Down From WWE SmackDown (22 Nov - Results & Review)

3. That Whole Shin Stalks LA Knight Package

Everything worked here.

LA Knight was literally looking over his shoulder from the moment he walked through the curtain, then Shinsuke Nakamura cut a cool pre-taped promo in Japanese on him before the match with Santos Escobar. The crux of Shin's mind games talked about how Knight is riddled with insecurities and needs constant reassurance from the audience to keep going. If he doesn't get that, then he'll fall flat and fail.

There's no denying that Escobar has slipped down the pecking order lately, but he was a solid opponent vs. LA for this outing. These lads have been around the horn together before, so they were always going to come up with something watchable amidst Naka's psychological warfare routine. Shin ambushing LA again post-match gives him an edge and makes him look dangerous - he’s inside the champ’s head, which is something a little different for LA because his character doesn’t normally get rattled.

Personally, this writer has always preferred Nakamura as a vicious heel, so this is all super enjoyable to watch play out. WWE has found Shinsuke's style on the mic. He's much, much, much better in pre-tapes than he is with a live mic inside the ring. Letting him speak his native tongue and using subtitles was another inspired choice, because everything about him feels more natural these days.

This will be a high quality midcard title match whether it happens at Survivor Series or at the upcoming Saturday Night's Main event show in mid-December. The next question is this: Should Nakamura be the one to end LA's title reign, even if it's only temporary?

Answers on a postcard.