LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar

[5.0] "I was happy to see Knight face Berto last week, as it was different from Escobar facing Knight, but we ended up getting the latter anyways. Unfortunately, this wasn't as good as their previous match or that aforementioned match between Berto and Knight."

[6.0] "Come on guys. This may be so uninteresting, but this match is nowhere near those grades, let's be a bit more objective and not just judge how interesting or not it is. The match was good, just good. Well worked, niced paced, had a bit of back-and-forth. There is nothing bad in this. The bad thing is just using Santos Escobar as LA Knight's personal jobber and giving out random title shots for no real reason. A match after the last episode's confrontation? Fine. A title match? Why. What did Santos do to deserve one? He hasn't won a match in months, he barely gets featured in the show, he didn't do anything to deserve one. It's an empty title shot. The only interesting thing here was, once again, Shinsuke Nakamura. Great promo with some interesting story in it. I find a bit random that Nakamura is targeting LA Knight and it gives me Bray Wyatt and Baron Corbin vibes of randomly feuding with any main eventer / upper-carder in the roster, but the attacks of the promo against Knight are quite engaging and psychologically deep. Now that I'm thinking, there may be some kind of connection between the three last Nakamura feuds, as Shinsuke always wanted to unmask the fraud that each and everyone of them are in his mind. Rollins trying to look strong while he was constantly in pain and injured, Cody being all white-knighted and shit and LA Knight being an insecure man that hides those insecurities with his mean personality and ask people for acceptance. If that's the case, that's some genius booking by Triple H, if not, it's just a random feud, but still good and interesting, and it's cool to see how darker Nakamura has gone after his failures (***)"

[6.0] "Another routine title defense for LA Knight. Good showing from Escobar despite there's no chance for him to win the match."

[3.0] "LA Knight dominates while leading a boring match as he pretty much always does while Santos Escobar looks checked out and makes zero effort towards making this any good. Save for the Shinsuke Nakamura return and heel turn (I think he was a face last time anyways, ) this felt completely pointless."

[4.0] "Another reminder of Escobar's sliding status unfortunately, turning in yet another pretty lifeless TV match with LA Knight. That's striking, as Knight's matches are usually high on effort and energy if nothing else. *3/4"

[3.0] "One of LA Knight weaker title defenses. LA Knight made quick work of Santos Escobar but he wasn't paying much attention to Santos Escobar as Shinsuke Nakamura was eyeing LA Knight from the top of the ramp. After LA Knight got the win Shinsuke Nakamura came rushing to the ring and attacked LA Knight again and was the man standing."

[4.0] "Not the best match these two could have put out. It feels like they went through the motions until Shinsuke random appearance. Finish of the match was good."

[4.0] "Nothing really stood out here bar the cool reversal into the BFT for the finish. The time allocated wasnt ideal but Ciampa and Ford later delivered a good match with more or less the same time given"

[5.0] "Not the best match, and it felt like Santos was sent out there to go through the motions so they could get Shinsuke out. I think the ending sequence where Knight hit the BFT was brilliant. Had the match kept that kind of energy it would have been really good."

[5.0] "[**1/2] This whole feud has spanned so long, yet we just treat Legado Del Fantasma as "new still", as this was the only real thing they've been part of. Knight's match with Humberto Carillo was fun, but this was longer and way less fun. Shinsuke came out, that was nice. After LA Knight hit probably the best, coolest, and most insane BFT of his career, Shinsuke attacked Knight with a Kinshasa to the back. Hopefully WWE can find LDF another feud to get involved in and can make this Shinsuke feud fun like they did the Rollins feud last year."

[5.0] "Fine title match, but with Shinsuke Nakamura having issued a challenge last week, and cut a promo before the match, Santos Escobar was a lame duck challenger. Seemed pretty routine here for LA Knight."

[7.0] "LA Knight is super super hot and popular, so he'll always get the loudest crowd reactions no matter what. Meanwhile Santos Escobar is incredible and is really getting to show just how good he is. While it wasn't really ever in doubt that Knight was retaining, they still put on a great match since they have history and amazing chemistry. Escobar started off fast and aggressive which was great and really made it seem like he would have at least some chance of getting really close to a victory. Escobar had time to shine and the finish was AMAZING. I almost jumped out of my seat. Also we get a Shinsuke Nakamura video package before the match which was incredible, and a mid match distraction. Honestly has me hoping for Nakamura to win the title, even if it is only for a little bit. My prediction still stands of Nakamura winning it just so that he can show up at Pro Wrestling NOAH's New Year show with the belt."