7 Ups And 9 Downs From WWE Survivor Series 2018

6. Rollins, Nakamura Ramp It Up

Seth Rollins Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

This was getting primed as a “down” because of the slow, ambling pace of the Shinsuke Nakamura/Seth Rollins match.

But then the two started accelerating and hitting their signature spots more rapidly, going into a series of near-falls and counterstrikes. Nakamura hit his patented knee strikes, while Rollins kept coming with superkicks and his superplex/Falcon Arrow combo. Shinsuke hit the Landslide, while Rollins nailed a Ripcord Knee.

Ultimately, it was Rollins dodging a Kinshasa and quickly hitting a curbstomp that was the difference. It was somewhat disappointing as a match, as it felt like they could have done a lot more.

Plus, there really wasn’t anything on the line – beyond the nebulous “bragging rights.” It wasn’t for a title; it wasn’t set up by the two men challenging each other. They just happened to be holding the secondary title for their respective brands, so they were thrown together. Good match, but could have been (and hopefully will in the future be) a lot better.

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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.