Shinsuke Nakamura: Next WWE Champion…Eventually

As I write this column, Jinder Mahal is serving his one hundredth day as WWE Champion. Some champions get to face a wide variety of competition. Hulk Hogan went around the circuit during his first title run defending against every big dude on the planet. Bret Hart got over with young me in 1992 by being a fighting champion and taking on everybody on the roster that wanted a shot.

Of course, Jinder doesn’t get to decide who he wrestles, so this is one thing I’m not blaming on him. But so far he’s only defended the WWE Championship against three people on television. One of them shouldn’t even really count because it was Baron Corbin cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and losing in five seconds. Jinder’s spent the last hundred days defending the title against Randy Orton & Shinsuke Nakamura.

He might spend the next hundred days defending against them if he’s lucky enough to keep the championship that long. Next week’s SmackDown Live features Orton vs. Nakamura in a FIRST TIME EVER meeting for the #1 contendership. Somehow I doubt that those folks wondering why they put Cena vs. Nakamura on free television are getting all worked up over this one. I’m sure it’s a dream match to somebody out there. In any event, one of these men will get another shot at Jinder Mahal very soon.

And if that doesn’t work, they’ll probably get another shot because nobody else is targeting the WWE Championship right now. John Cena moved on to Raw…beating Jinder for his 17th title reign wasn’t worth his time, but sonning Roman Reigns in a promo is. AJ Styles is busy defending the US Championship. Baron Corbin has opted to target that title instead since his cash-in attempt didn’t go so well. Kevin Owens is too wrapped up in his issue with Shane McMahon. Sami Zayn is fighting Kevin Owens forever, so he probably won’t care too much about the title until Owens gets it. The only guy I can think of that has even mentioned the WWE Championship lately is Bobby Roode. It’s probably a little early for that, so our hopes currently lie with Nakamura & Orton.

Honestly, I hope it isn’t Randy Orton. Nothing personal against the Viper, I’ve just seen more than enough of Randy Orton vs. Jinder Mahal for one lifetime. I think Randy Orton has as well if recent interviews are any indication…but he might take one more match if it results in a title victory. What better way to keep your established veteran happy than giving him the strap? Works every time.

Orton might have some unfinished business with Rusev anyway. Or so that’s what the Internet news tells me. The reports on the Orton/Rusev SummerSlam match amused me. The idea of Orton beating Rusev with an RKO in 10 seconds making us want to see more of the feud? Come on now. If anything, that closed the book on any interest I would have ever had in seeing that match. Randy Orton is obviously the better man, and Rusev is obviously making a good chunk of change to not do a whole heck of a lot.

So if it’s not Randy Orton, it’s going to be Nakamura. Shinsuke & Jinder’s first attempt at a match at SummerSlam didn’t go particularly well. The good news is that Shinsuke’s second matches with people seem to go better than the first. His SmackDown Live matches with Dolph Ziggler & Baron Corbin outshined his meetings with them on PPV. Will he & Jinder have similar luck? My hopes aren’t exactly up, but stranger things have happened!

Given the fact that WWE is heading to Japan for a one show on September 16 & Mahal vs. Nakamura is being advertised for it, it seems the direction is clear. The question: Does Jinder drop the title in Japan, or do they wait until Hell in a Cell? They already had Nakamura win the NXT Championship on a show in Osaka, so the precedent is there. The WWE Championship has only changed hands in Japan one time, and it wasn’t even official. Antonio Inoki won it from Bob Backlund for a week…he never really lost it back, he just gave it back and everybody agreed to forget about it. From a historical perspective, it would be cool for the championship to change hands in Japan. It would also be pretty cool for the Japanese fans.

As much as WWE loves heat these days, keeping the title on Jinder there makes a lot of sense too. OK, maybe not a lot of sense to you, me & other rational-thinking people. But when you’re WWE and you love things that get heat, it seems like a really good idea. Besides, you don’t want to make the whole “Nakamura wins championships when they go to Japan” thing too obvious. You have Nakamura beat Orton on SD Live, then set up the big title match in Japan. Everybody thinks Nakamura’s going over…until he doesn’t. Have some kind of schmozz like Jinder’s matches always are, then Nakamura gets his third & “final” chance at Hell in a Cell.

Inside the Cell? Sure. The feud probably doesn’t warrant it, but it theoretically keeps the Singh Brothers out. Nobody needs to take a bump off the top since Shane’s already done that earlier in the evening. Maybe Great Khali comes down and rips one of the sides of the Cell off for your big Hell in a Cell moment.

Now that I’ve written all of this down and am kind of buying into the idea of dragging Nakamura vs. Mahal out to Hell in a Cell, tune in to SmackDown Live next week and watch Randy Orton beat Shinsuke Nakamura.