6 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (7 August)

4. As Good A Challenger As It Gets

Setting aside the foolishness of the past several weeks with Shinsuke Nakamura in a strange triangle feud with Bronson Reed and Tommaso Ciampa, WWE did a decent job Monday night plowing through that angle and getting the King of Strong Style to a new level.

Nakamura toppled Reed clean in a singles match that effectively ended their underwhelming feud. Later, he witnessed Sami Zayn being attacked backstage, taken out of the six-man tag team main event, so he took advantage of the situation and set the trap by offering Seth Rollins to be his partner.

Then after the faces defeated the Judgment Day, Nak sprung his trap and dropped the World Heavyweight Champion with a Kinshasa, walking away afterward. It was a simple move, but one that Shinsuke hinted at in recent weeks, expressing his frustration at people getting in his way.

Lashing out by getting close to Rollins and then knocking him out fit his recent mood, and it gives Seth an unexpected challenger. WWE could do worse, and admittedly, Nakamura wasn’t going anywhere in the Reed feud, so ending it quickly and moving on to this rivalry was the right call.