Extreme Rules opened in shocking fashion on Sunday night, as Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Finn Balor to win the Intercontinental Championship in the first match of the event’s kickoff show.
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Just like with their non-title match a week prior, Nakamura looked to have the win in the bag when he set up for his Kinshasa finisher. However Balor countered with a jumping stomping and a Shotgun Dropkick, setting the challenger up for the Coup de Grace. But Nakamura rolled out of the way, and nailed Balor with back-to-back Kinshasa’s for the win.
The win marks Nakamura’s first reign as Intercontinental Champion. He previously held the NXT Championship twice and the United States title twice.
Prior to Nakamura’s sudden pursuit of the Intercontinental Championship he had been mostly off of television since WrestleMania after a tag team with Rusev didn’t pick up much steam. Balor was off television for nearly a month after successfully defending his title against Andrade as “The Demon” at Super ShowDown. Balor initially won the title by donning the demonic body paint and beating Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania.
Back in January Balor gave an interview with ESPN, where he reflected on his career in WWE thus far.
“I feel like when I became Universal Champion for the first time, I think perhaps — all things considered, looking back — it may have happened too soon, and I wasn’t ready,” Balor said. “And that was just … that injury was kind of the universe’s way of saying, ‘Hey, Finn, time to knuckle down and work a little harder.’ I thought it was very fitting for my career that it happened the way it happened. It was like another obstacle has been put in my way.
“I worked for six years to get out of the independent scene, the United Kingdom and then, you know, and worked for eight years in Japan to establish myself there Left [there] and worked for two years to help build NXT and then here I come to WWE, and I’m a house on fire and in three weeks I’ve got the Universal Title in my hands,” he added. “I feel like it was a very fitting kind of end to that story to kind of knock me back down a peg or two, and then knock me back to the bottom of the pile and make me really fight for what I needed to.”
The IC title match was just one of eight championship bouts scheduled for Sunday’s show in Philadelphia. Other big matches include Universal Champion Seth Rollins & Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch vs. Baron Corbin and Lacey Evans, WWE Champion Kofi Kingston vs. Samoa Joe, SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross, United States Champion Ricochet vs. AJ Styles and SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan & Rowan vs. Heavy Machinery vs. The New Day.
