Seth Rollins Beats Shinsuke Nakamura in Last Man Standing Match at WWE Fastlane 2023

Seth Rollins defeated Shinsuke Nakamura in a Last Man Standing match at Fastlane on Saturday to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

The main event proved to be a brutal match with both wrestlers dishing out loads of punishment.

The match ended after Rollins hit Nakamura with a falcon arrow off a platform through a table below. Rollins was able to get up before the 10 count, but Nakamura did not, allowing the champion to retain the belt.

Rollins and Nakamura first did battle for the world title last month when they faced off at Payback. While Nakamura pushed Rollins to his limit, The Visionary barely managed to prevail and retain on that occasion.

Although Rollins and Nakamura had been friendly with each other previously, The King of Strong Style turned on Seth following a six-man tag team match on the Aug. 7 episode of Raw.

Nakamura was enlisted to team with Rollins and Cody Rhodes against The Judgment Day, and while they won the match, Shinsuke attacked Rollins afterward and hit him with a Kinshasa.

That started a heated rivalry between Nakamura and Rollins, during which Nakamura made it clear that he knew a secret about Seth and his health that he planned to exploit.

Shinsuke told Rollins that he knew about his longstanding back injury, and Rollins later acknowledged that he had been dealing with a back ailment for quite some time and was unsure how much longer he would be able to gut through it and stay on top of his game.

Nakamura vowed to not only beat Rollins for the World Heavyweight Championship at Payback, but to maim Rollins and end his career in the process.

After escaping Payback with a win over Nakamura, Rollins decided to offer Shinsuke another title opportunity, but the Japanese Superstar initially declined, preferring to do things on his own timeline.

In the weeks that followed, Nakamura continued to taunt Rollins, and he picked his spots by attacking The Architect and making an example of him.

Eventually, Nakamura challenged Rollins to a Last Man Standing match in an effort to put him down once and for all, and after Rollins accepted, Nakamura gained the mental edge by jumping him on the go-home episode of Raw before Fastlane and keeping him on the mat for the count of 10.

Based on his presentation and how he had been built, Nakamura arguably looked like a bigger threat to become world champion for the first time in WWE than ever before, but Rollins emerged victorious once again, perhaps putting an end to his rivalry with Shinsuke.

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