On this week’s edition of Friday Night SmackDown, Apollo Crews defended the WWE Intercontinental Championship against King Nakamura. Both men had their respective allies in their corners; while Crews was backed by Commander Azeez, Nakamura was backed by his energetic guitarist, Rick Boogs. Going into this match, Crews seemed to be the dominant competitor. However, throughout a hard-fought match, it was ultimately “The King” of SmackDown that emerged victorious with his second-ever Intercontinental title in WWE.
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King @ShinsukeN is your NEW Intercontinental Champion!!!#SmackDown @rickboogswwe @PatMcAfeeShow pic.twitter.com/lY9wnGVlZt
— WWE (@WWE) August 14, 2021
King Nakamura Wins WWE Intercontinental Championship
Though the competitors were backed by their respective allies, they wouldn’t be for long. Early in the bout, Rick Boogs began to play his guitar on the ring apron. This caught the attention of the official, who ejected Boogs from ringside. As this was occurring, Commander Azeez entered the ring, undoubtedly to attack King Nakamura. Before this could be done, the official caught sight of this, quickly ejecting Azeez from the match as well. From there, the playing field became level. The match in question concluded when Nakamura landed the Kinshasa on Crews, picking up the pinfall victory and the WWE Intercontinental Championship.
As stated earlier, this marks the second time that King Nakamura has won the WWE Intercontinental Championship. His first title win took place on the Extreme Rules 2019 kickoff show, where he defeated Rusev to win the gold. Nakamura would hold the title for 201 days before dropping it to Braun Strowman on the January 31, 2020 edition of SmackDown. This second title victory also makes Nakamura a 7x Intercontinental Champion throughout wrestling; in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, where he wrestled from 2002 to 2016, he held the IWGP Intercontinental Championship on 5 occasions.
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