What Happened Before And After SmackDown Live?

Before, and after. There are a lot of people on the WWE roster. With only five hours of the main television shows every week, it’s obvious that not everyone can make it onto the shows. Therefore, dark matches before and after Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live can be very helpful. Sometimes you get bigger names than others, including some of the top names on the roster, which was the case tonight.

Think of this as a preview.

AJ Styles vows to finish Shinsuke Nakamura once and for all: SmackDown LIVE, May 8, 2018

According to Wrestlinginc.com, there was a dark match both before and after SmackDown Live. Before the show, Asuka defeated Sonya Deville in a match that was described as very good and something fans wanted to see go longer. After the show and 205 Live were over, AJ Styles successfully defended the WWE Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura. Styles and Nakamura have been feuding with each other for the last several weeks, including a draw this past Sunday at Backlash.

That’s the bread, so here’s the rest of the sandwich (the SmackDown results for you anti-sandwich people).

Opinion: That’s quite the way to bookend the night. With so many names around WWE, this is one of those things that you have to do for the sake of keeping people in the ring. Asuka wasn’t in action on Sunday so this is better than nothing. At the very least there’s a way to give the paying customers something more than they’re getting on the TV shows. If nothing else, they deserve something for actually sticking around through 205 Live, which a large group of people aren’t doing.

Which of these matches interests you more? Who will win the Styles vs. Nakamura feud? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his Amazon author page with 26 wrestling books. His latest book is the WWE Grab Bag.

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