The King of Strong-Style picked up a big victory to kick off Smackdown Live this week, pinning Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor clean (enough) in the middle of the ring in a non-title match.

Nakamura hasn’t been seen consistently on WWE television for quite some time. He stated this week in a backstage promo that he was done attempting to be a tag team wrestler, effectively killing his partnership with Rusev to once again chase singles gold.

While nothing has been confirmed yet, it’s reasonable to think that Nakamura is now at the top of the list of challengers to face Balor for the Intercontinental title, potentially as early as this Sunday’s WWE Extreme Rules pay-per-view.

The Artist is a two-time WWE United States Champion and a two-time NXT Champion, but has yet to win the historic Intercontinental belt.

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Outside of also being a multiple-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Nakamura actually put the IWGP Intercontinental title on the map during his later years in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The title was considered so prestigious during his five reigns that it once headlined Wrestle Kingdom due to a fan vote considering his match to be more important than the world title match.

The intensity is HIGH right now as @ShinsukeN goes one-on-one with #ICChampion @FinnBalor! #SDLive pic.twitter.com/W17QHgy7m9

— WWE (@WWE) July 10, 2019