Two days later on "SmackDown Live", Nakamura lost the title to R-Truth. Rusev then confronted Truth and pushed him into a title match, but Truth retained the title. After the match, Nakamura joined forces with Rusev into attacking Truth, starting an alliance between the two. On the Fastlane pre-show, Nakamura and Rusev were defeated by The New Day. At WrestleMania 35, Nakamura and Rusev would compete in a fatal four-way tag team match for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship, but were unsuccessful. The duo returned during the 51-Man Battle Royal at the 2019 Super Showdown, but they were both eliminated during the match.