9 Ups & 0 Downs From WWE SmackDown (7 Mar - Results & Review)

3. LA Knight Wins His Second US Title

LA Knight WWE United States Title
WWE.com

Well, well, well. How the turn tables.

LA Knight and Shinsuke Nakamura seem to have gelled right at the end of their feud, and that made for a tasty main event on SmackDown. Their United States Title showdown had an ace finish with Naka accidentally blasting referee Charles Robinson with the red mist (rough week for Chuck, eh?!) before Knight hit his BFT on a steel chair. It feels like the right call to put the belt back on LA heading into ‘Mania.

This writer can see him working some sort of multi-man title defence on the big stage to squeeze some names on the card. After all, it's not like Knight has an obvious one-on-one opponent anyway. Jacob Fatu could've been that guy, but he's busy destroying everything in his path with Braun Strowman. That leaves Knight open to fresh foes. Over to you and your writers, Trips.

It was a massive show of faith in both Knight and Shin that they got the headline spot on a packed episode of SmackDown. WWE could've put Cody's impassioned promo or the Jade Cargil, Bianca Belair and Naomi stuff on last, but they handed the ball to these United States Title enemies and barked, 'RUN WITH IT'. They ran. Oh, how they ran!

Knight is now a two-time WWE US Champion, and that title looks right on him. Truthfully, it never really did on Nakamura's Mortal Kombat-esque character, but the Japanese stalwart will be fine if he still gets some TV time to act all mysterious and menacing. If management keep him ticking along in the background, then he'll come in handy next time the promotion needs a stopgap challenger/champ.

Advertisement
Contributor

Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.