Shinsuke Nakamura upset LA Knight at WWE Survivor Series: WarGames on Saturday to win the United States Championship

In a closely contested battle with both men taking turns in control, it was a brief, yet dominant stretch by Nakamura that secured him the win.

Nakamura dropped Knight head-first onto the steel before hitting him with a running Kinshasa, securing the pinfall and winning his third United States Championship.

After being off WWE programming since April, Nakamura made his unannounced return on the Nov. 15 episode of SmackDown when he resurfaced following Knight's successful title defense against Berto.

Sporting a new look complete with black, flowing gear and red face paint, Nakamura attacked Knight after his victory, signaling that he had the United States Championship firmly in his crosshairs.

One week later, Knight defended the U.S. title again in a win over Santos Escobar, and much like the previous week, he was on the receiving end of a beat-down from The King of Strong Style.

The U.S. title match between Knight and Nakamura was officially announced earlier this week on Raw, and their rivalry reached another level Friday night on the go-home edition of SmackDown before Survivor Series.

Nakamura had his first televised WWE match in seven months, beating Andrade in impressive fashion, but Knight aimed to get the last laugh by attacking Shinsuke, just as Nakamura had done to him the previous two weeks.

Instead, Nakamura avoided the attack and blinded Knight by spewing black mist in his eyes.

While the 44-year-old Nakamura has never won a world title in WWE, he entered Survivor Series looking to add to an already impressive résumé.

In addition to being a three-time IWGP heavyweight champion and five-time IWGP intercontinental champion in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Nakamura held the NXT Championship, Intercontinental Championship and United States Championship two times each in WWE, plus he won the 2018 men's Royal Rumble match.

Conversely, the U.S. title is the first championship Knight ever won on WWE's main roster, so he was seemingly willing to go to great lengths in order to hang onto it.

Ultimately, Nakamura got the better of Knight again at Survivor Series, though, and he became a three-time United States champion in the process.

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