SummerSlam 2018: Shinsuke Nakamura vs Jeff Hardy, United States Championship, winners, video highlights and analysis

Jeff Hardy did not have the easiest journey to SummerSlam. Not only did he lose the United States Title at Extreme Rules due to Shinsuke Nakamura using unfair means, he has also had a 'Viper' waiting on the sidelines to attack him throughout.

The brutal attacks launched by Randy Orton on Jeff Hardy made sure that Jeff's mind was split between the United States Title Match and another possible attack from Orton. Without any further ado, let's see what happened at SummerSlam when Shinsuke Nakamura defended his United States Championship against Jeff Hardy.

Nakamura and Jeff started off with mind games in the beginning, with both stars using each other's moves to mock the other. Nakamura put a Chinlock on Hardy, but the Charismatic Enigma got out. He tried to follow out Nakamura to the outside, which saw him taken out with a quick kick to the temple.

The action came back inside the ring, with Nakamura controlling the pace of the match. Nakamura hit Jeff with knees and hard strikes, but Hardy came back with an elbow and a Dropkick. Hardy hit Nakamura with a Slingblade and knocked Nakamura down. He hit him with an Inverted Atomic Drop followed by the Double Leg Drop on Shinsuke's lower abdomen.

Jeff went for the corner Swinging Dropkick, but Nakamura caught him and put him on the turnbuckle. Nakamura went for the knee to the abdomen, but Jeff blocked and hit Nakamura with a Whisper in the Wind. Jeff went to the top again, but this time, Nakamura took advantage and dropped him, hitting him with the knee.

He went for the Kinshasa, but Hardy blocked and went for the Twist of Fate. Nakamura blocked and went for the low blow, which Hardy avoided. He dropped Nakamura with a Twist of Fate and hit the Swanton Bomb, but Nakamura got to the rope.

Hardy hit him with another Twist of Fate and went for the Swanton Bomb. Nakamura had rolled to the apron, and avoided the Swanton Bomb, with Jeff falling back first onto the hardest part of the ring. The move looked devastating.

Nakamura hit the Kinshasa and took the win, pinning Jeff and keeping the United States Championship in the process.

Orton came out after the match, and looked like he was going to go after a prone Jeff Hardy, but backed away at the last second, leaving him in the ring.

The match was amazing, with the ending eliciting gasps from the crowd as they looked on with utter awe while Jeff Hardy sacrificed his body yet again.

Result: Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Jeff Hardy and retained his United States Championship

About the author

Anirban Banerjee is a journalist from Kolkata, India and has been a part of building Sportskeeda's WWE section over the past 9 years. He's been an Assistant Content Manager for the team during the past 4 years as well. Banerjee has interviewed Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, 'Cowboy' Cerrone, Jorge Masvidal, Mandy Rose, Joe Hendry, Darren Till, and many others.

Anirban has worked in the field of wrestling and mixed martial arts journalism for several years. In addition to his work on Sportskeeda, Anirban is a fiction writer and has co-written over 20 biographies. He was also a columnist for 90 Minutes.

In his free time, Anirban is an avid reader and spends hours lost in books.

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