Smark Out Moment

The WWE NXT Championship has changed hands as Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Samoa Joe to win the title at the live event in Osaka, Japan on December 3rd.

My immediate reaction: Funny story, I had this post written up the night after NXT TakeOver: Toronto as I figured this would be an inevitability, but I forgot to schedule it to auto-publish on the site, and since I have no idea what the time zones in Japan are, I figured they wouldn't do this event until later. Silly me + good job, me, for getting this obvious prediction correct. With this taking place in Japan, it seemed like a no-brainer. Samoa Joe is main roster bound and when Bobby Roode won the title shot for San Antonio, there was too much doubt surrounding Joe as champion for it not to turn out like this. It's the right move to do, too. Nakamura needs to stay in NXT for just a little while longer but I think he'll be coming up to the main roster in 2017 after WrestleMania (possibly before SummerSlam) while Roode is champion and Joe moves up at the Royal Rumble.

Click the following links for the full list of title changes for this year and the list of current champions and my predictions for who will take the belts away from them.