The story of the match, at least early, was Itami's willingness to stand back and watch his opponents wage war while expending as little energy as possible. The action started hot and heavy, with the stars of 205 Live cutting a frenetic pace, each looking to steal a pinfall and the title. This was a fine addition to the pre-show, and the title change helps it mean a little more than it would have otherwise, but the finish still seemed a little out of place based on the storytelling that led to it.īuddy Murphy has defeated the likes of Mustafa Ali and Cedric Alexander to successfully retain his Cruiserweight Championship to this point, but Sunday he had the unenviable task of defending against Kalisto, Hideo Itami and Akira Tozawa in a Fatal 4-Way match. Nakamura winning the title adds another piece of gold to his resume and makes for another Rumble moment for The Artist, but it essentially renders the last month of storytelling meaningless. How many times are we going to sit through the story of Lana accidentally costing Rusev matches? How many times is WWE going to drop said story and keep them together? What's next for Rusev, who appeared to be building momentum for himself before this loss? Rusev and Nakamura have solid enough chemistry, so the match itself was good, but the angle that led to the finish creates more questions than answers. Nakamura defeated Rusev to win the United States Championship The distraction allowed The Artist to deliver the Kinshasa and score his second reign with the U.S. Rusev rushed toward the challenger, who moved, and he wiped out his own wife. Late in the match, Lana called out Nakamura's cheating ways. The challenger felt the frustration of being unable to put away his opponent, as Rusev continued to fight from underneath, unwilling to let his title slip through his fingers. The Bulgarian Brute powered him down, but Nakamura applied an armbar and then a triangle as he attempted to force a submission. The challenger set up Rusev for a Kinshasa, but he evaded it, caught him with a big lariat and followed with a Machka Kick. Rusev built momentum and set up his opponent for a Machka Kick, but Nakamura wisely slid to the arena floor and caught a rushing Rusev with a kick. Rusev powered out and dropped The Artist with a big dropkick. However, Nakamura seized control of the match and grounded his bigger, more powerful opponent with a front facelock. It was paint-by-numbers, at best, and highlighted a team in Roode and Gable that has struggled to remain over despite an ongoing title reign.Īll things considered, it was a waste of everyone involved and did nothing to support the idea WWE Creative will be putting more emphasis on the division and its teams.Ī motivated and fired-up United States champion Rusev, seeking revenge for the injury suffered by wife Lana in the build to Sunday's match, attacked Shinsuke Nakamura from the opening bell, taking the fight to the former champion. This felt like a match that would be thrown onto the third hour of Raw, with little or no meaning whatsoever to the landscape of the tag division. Roode and Gable defeated Rezar and Dawson Mistiming between Dawson and Rezar proved their undoing as Roode and Gable were able to score the win. The former Olympian finally escaped and made the hot tag to Roode, who exploded into the match. Gable showed fire in trying to fight from underneath, but he quickly found himself in the unforgiving grasp of Rezar. "Work together!" Drake Maverick demanded from ringside every time there was even the slightest hint of dissension among the heels. Reluctant partners Dawson and Rezar took the fight to the champions, setting aside their differences to isolate Gable and wear down the smaller of their opponents. Announced earlier in the night during the Kickoff Show, the mismatched team of AOP's Rezar and The Revival's Scott Dawson battled Raw tag team champions Bobby Roode and Chad Gable for the opportunity to be in tag team contention.