WWE SmackDown: 5 reasons why Braun Strowman won the Intercontinental Championship

#4 An underwhelming reign from Shinsuke Nakamura

The Artist held the title for 200 days

It's not often that we see Superstars hold the United States and Intercontinental Championship for very long. For the former title, the last few years have seen it plagued with short reigns.

One of the few reigns in recent years that wasn't short was that of Shinsuke Nakamura. Unfortunately, nothing was done in that reign as well. In this case, Nakamura earned a title shot against then-champion Finn Balor around the Summer of 2019 and on an almost-unannounced kickoff show match, the Japanese star beat Finn Balor to become the Intercontinental Championship.

He ended up holding the title for 200 days and even brought a new title design to the mix. However, nothing productive was made of this reign either. For various reasons, the lack of feuds or support has made it seem like Nakamura isn't the man to elevate the prestige of the Intercontinental Championship.

Perhaps WWE had enough of this and decided that it was time to pull the trigger on Strowman.