7 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE Extreme Rules 2018

3. Going Low For The Win

jeff hardy shinsuke nakamura
WWE.com

Unlike the SmackDown Women’s Championship match, which also ended due to screwy circumstances, the United States Championship match ended after a less than honorable action.

Just after ring introductions had been finished, Shinsuke Nakamura hit a now-signature low blow on champ Jeff Hardy, dropping him before the bell. Foolishly, Hardy told the referee to ring the bell, leading to an immediate Kinshasa and a new U.S. champ.

In this case, it fit perfectly, with Nakamura resorting to such tactics regularly to try unsuccessfully to win the WWE Championship from AJ Styles, so it was bound to pay off at some point. On top of that, it helps that Nak can actually back up his tactics in the ring when it’s needed.

This time, Hardy’s hubris led to his downfall, as he agreed to start the match before he could even stand on his own. And this dastardly win opens the door for the two to have a serious rematch in the future.

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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.