WWE Royal Rumble 2019: Report Card

United States Championship: Rusev (c.) (w./ Lana) vs Shinsuke Nakamura

Rusev had his first title defense as United States Champion

Result: Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Rusev to regain the United States Championship via pinfall with a Kinshasa to the back of the neck.

Grade: B

Analysis: These two Superstars have pretty good chemistry with each other as even though they have had many matches with each other, each one ranges from good to great.

This was another great match that really did well to highlight Shinsuke Nakamura's mind games and savvy technical wrestling skills. Shinsuke Nakamura had a really cool and smooth transition of a cross armbar into a triangle choke into a guillotine choke.

Rusev then countered that into a jackhammer and it really seemed like he had the Artist beat. However, The Artist would keep fighting. Shinsuke Nakamura also looks like a great heel because he intentionally enranged Lana so that Rusev would accidentally knock her off of the apron.

It was nice to see a surprise title change and hopefully, Shinsuke Nakamura's second United States Championship reign is better than his first.

Although, one must wonder what will happen to Rusev because the automatic rematch clause is no more. It is sort of crazy to think that in one year, Shinsuke Nakamura went from winning the Royal Rumble match to wrestling on the kickoff show.