Shinsuke Nakamura as WWE United States Champion feels out of place

A couple of weeks ago at Survivor Series, Shinsuke Nakamura unprecedentedly defeated LA Knight to capture the WWE United States Championship. This begins Nakamura's third reign as champion. This time around, things for Nakamura feels different. Prior to his surprise return, unless you seen him at a live house show, it had been several months since the last time we seen Nakamura on television.

Nakamaura feels out of place as US Champion

While this is all great for Nakamura (and honestly well deserved), the timing of it all happening is all wrong. The fact that he feels out of place as champion isn't his fault.

While he was away from television, we'd been used to watching Andrade and Carmelo Hayes battle in a seven-match series to determine a number one contender for the United States Championship. For once, WWE found a way to create a fresh feud that was based solely on competing for a shot at the title.

Instead of rewarding one of them with a match, WWE creative decided to ruin the seventh match with a tie and make it a triple threat for the title at Crown Jewel. Knight pins Hayes in the match, then that is it. They're out of the title picture? Andrade doesn't get another shot? After gaining so much interest with their matches it brought excitement back to the midcard scene on Smackdown. It made the United States Champion a prize to be coveted.

All of this happens just so Nakamaura returns and surprise attacks Knight the following week after successfully defending the title in an open challenge on Smackdown. After the attack Nakamura instantly gets a title shot and takes the title right away.

After building so much momentum for the midcard scene, it feels like it took a step back with this move. Again, it's not that Nakamura doesn't deserve it (he does). It just feels like it did more harm to Andrade and Hayes' momentum/stock than it did to boost Nakamura's.

For what it's worth, his new presentation and vignettes have been invigorating to watch. He feels like an imposing heel on the roster, but this could've also been done without him winning the title. It is early in his title reign, so maybe things change, but right now it feels out of place compared to how the midcard scene is and has been on Monday Night Raw.