New WWE US Champion Crowned On SmackDown

There is a new champion in WWE as Shinsuke Nakamura lost his United States Championship in just his second title defence.

A US Title match was meant to take place on the February 28 edition of SmackDown but that was pulled from the show as Shinsuke Nakamura mourned the loss of Japanese star Osamu Nishimura with the US Champion being the one to announce Nishimura’s death.

That match was replaced with a one-night tournament to find the number one contender for the US Title with three qualifying matches taking place culminating in a triple threat bout with the winner of that contest moving on to clash with Nakamura.

LA Knight Wins WWE US Title

Jacob Fatu, LA Knight, and Carmelo Hayes were the three stars who made it into that triple threat match with Knight eventually coming out on top. He was the star originally meant to face Nakamura for the title in the match that was originally pulled.

On the March 7 edition of SmackDown, LA Knight got his shot at Shinsuke Nakamura in just the second defence of Nakamura’s reign. Nakamura looked to bring a chair into the ring after taking out the referee with the poison mist. Knight managed to get the upper hand and nail the champion with a BFT on the chair before a second referee ran to the ring to count the pin. This win means LA Knight is now a two-time US Champion in WWE.