Nakamura Earns Title Shot

Shinsuke Nakamura earned a WWE Championship shot against Jinder Mahal by pinning John Cena clean on last night’s SmackDown.

The match came to a close when Nakamura reversed the Attitude Adjustment in to a stiff suplex and followed up with the Kinshasa. The Japanese star is said to have apologized for Cena landing on his neck, but there were no hard feelings:

Suplex on Cena seemed to have stunned him a bit. Talking to the ref and moving his fingers in a way of assurance to himself & ref. #SDLive

— Justin LaBar (@JustinLaBar) August 2, 2017

Nakamura said, "I'm sorry." Cena responded, "Don't be sorry." #SDLive

— Justin LaBar (@JustinLaBar) August 2, 2017

After the match Baron Corbin attacked Nakamura, but Cena came to his aid and ended up putting him through the announce table. It’s likely that Cena vs Corbin will now also take place at SummerSlam.

Meanwhile, Jinder Mahal says it doesn’t matter who faces him at SummerSlam:

Most Watched RAW Since April

This week’s episode of WWE RAW on the USA Network drew an average audience of 3,163,000 viewers, the highest number since April 17th.

Hour one did 3,194,000 viewers, hour 2 did 3,275,000, and hour three drew 3,021,000 viewers.

Batista On Lilian Garcia Podcast

Batista was the first guest on Lilian Garcia’s new podcast and revealed that he suffered from social anxiety when he entered the wrestling business.

“Wrestling really brought me out of my shell…But I wish when I was younger I hadn’t been so ashamed. I wish I would’ve embraced it more because it’s okay, and I find out more, all the time, that a lot of actors are the same way. They get anxiety and get self-conscious, and get insecurities about their performances. And I think if people hear more from that – from people, especially someone like me who succeed in these entertainment fields – they can see that I am someone who is like that as well. Then, they will just be more accepting and just be okay with it. Because there’s more people like that than you would think.”

The Guardians of the Galaxy star also discussed not really having a father growing up:

“My father was never really there for me…It’s something that’s a little weird because we had a long talk about it when I was older. I had already been wrestling, so I was in my late thirties, and we had a talk about it, and he was just bent out of shape [about] why I wasn’t more respectful of him and why I didn’t give more to him. And I told him it was just because he was never there for me, so I don’t have that, you know, that father-son connection with him. He’s just kind of some guy that I’ve known. You know, he was barely ever there for me. He’s never done anything for me. He’s never really even given me any fatherly advice. I just don’t know him at all; he’s really a stranger to me.”