What Happened Before And After This Week’s SmackDown Live?

SmackDown is a busy night. This has been a rather eventful week in WWE, with all kinds of things taking place in just a few days. There have been injury scares, wrestlers trying to leave, callups from NXT and almost all points in between. With all that stuff going around, sometimes it helps to have things slow down a bit, which is where the wrestling comes in. That’s what happened before and after Tuesday night’s TV shows.

According to Wrestlinginc.com, there were a pair of dark matches at this week’s SmackDown Live tapings. Before the show, Rey Mysterio and United States Champion R-Truth teamed together to defeat the Colons. After the show was over, SmackDown Women’s Champion Asuka successfully defended her title against Charlotte by submission. R-Truth has yet to appear on television since winning the title three weeks ago. Asuka had wrestled earlier in the night on SmackDown Live in a losing effort against Mandy Rose.

In case you forgot about him. Check out how R-Truth won the title in the first place:

You may have seen this one before. Check out the classic between Asuka and Charlotte in New Orleans at last year’s WrestleMania 34:

Opinion: I feel sorry for R-Truth in a way, as has been the case with most of the recent United States Champions. It’s like the title is cursed or something as no one who wins the title ever gets to be on television all that long. Why WWE insists on having a title be that worthless is beyond me, but it’s been the case with the last several champions and isn’t showing any sign of changing at the moment.

Which of these matches sounds better? What do you think Asuka will be doing at WrestleMania 35?

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 28 wrestling books. His latest book is the the Complete 1997 Monday Night Raw Reviews.

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