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What's the story?
During this week's edition of SmackDown Live, WWE much like they did for Raw, also taped next week's Christmas special episode.
As noted, a major title change also took place during the tapings, as Shinsuke Nakamura lost his United States Championship to Rusev.
In case you didn't know...
After failing to capture the WWE Championship from arch-rival AJ Styles in the early stages of 2018, Shinsuke Nakamura shifted his focus towards the WWE United States Championship and it wasn't too long until the former NXT Champion eventually captured the US Title from former champion Jeff Hardy at the Extreme Rules pay-per-view.
During his reign as US Champion, Nakamura defended his title against the likes of Jeff Hardy, R-Truth, and even against Rusev at WWE's Crown Jewel pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia.
The heart of the matter
Shinsuke Nakamura and Rusev have been going back-and-forth against each other on SmackDown Live for the past several weeks and it all initially began when Nakamura brutally attacked Rusev several weeks ago, prior to their singles match on SD Live.
Having already defended the US Title against Rusev earlier in the year at Crown Jewel, 'The Artist' was once again slated to put his title on the line against 'The Bulgarian Brute' during tonight's SD Live Tapings.
Rusev eventually defeated Nakamura and became a three-time WWE US Champion on Tuesday Night's SmackDown Live Tapings in Fresno, California. Rusev's title win will be telecasted next week on the Christmas special episode of SmackDown Live and fans tune in to see how Rusev captured the US Title off Nakamura.
What's next?
Shinsuke Nakamura's reign as WWE US Champion lasted well over 150 days. However, it definitely was one of weakest title reigns' in WWE history, to say the least. It'll now interesting to see what WWE does with Nakamura from here onwards, considering that he barely had any TV time over these past few months.
As far as Rusev is concerned though, his reign as US Champion is definitely going to be interesting.
