Shinsuke Nakamura Beats Apollo Crews, Retains Intercontinental Title
Photo Credit: WWE
Shinsuke Nakamura has been enjoying his most recent run as WWE Intercontinental Champion, and the celebrations continued on tonight’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown, as the champion defended his title against Apollo Crews.
Desperate to get his title back from Nakamura, Crews came out strong, hitting a leapfrog splash onto Nakamura before throwing him into the corner and trying to take over from there. Nakamura was quick to counter, though, and broke away from Crews’ control before landing a series of successive kicks in against his opponent. As the match went on, the two battled to a bit of a standstill, but it was their respective ringside partners who would change things.
Turned him INSIDE OUT!#SmackDown #ICTitle @WWEApollo @ShinsukeN pic.twitter.com/I7cB1vDqj9
— WWE (@WWE) September 25, 2021
Late in the match, Crews was able to land a big suplex onto Nakamura that was unsuccessful in ending things. After dropping Nakamura with back-to-back powerbombs, Crews still couldn’t end things, and allowed his frustration to bubble over, which Nakamura took advantage of by slipping away and hitting an enzuigiri on the superstar. Nakamura then lined up for the Kinshasa in the corner, but Commander Azeez pulled Crews out of the ring.
Nakamura then went over to the big man and stunned him with a dropkick, but as Azeez began to charge toward Nakamura, Rick Boogs grabbed the giant from behind and actually managed to suplex him. This allowed Shinsuke to get back into the ring and counter another slam attempt from Crews into a pin for the win.
.@rickboogswwe had @ShinsukeN’s back during the battle against @WWEApollo! #SmackDown @CommanderAzeez pic.twitter.com/EgH0wPa8pw
— WWE (@WWE) September 25, 2021
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