Dark before and dark after. Almost every week, WWE has a handful of dark matches after Monday Night Raw and before and after SmackDown Live. These can be a pretty standard match and a way to practice a few upcoming pay per view matches. Other times though, you can get something unique that you would never get to see again. Those are the fun ones and we got two of them tonight.
According to Wrestlinginc.com, the dark match before this week’s SmackDown Live saw Asuka and Naomi team up to defeat Sonya Deville and Mandy Rose. After the show ended, the team of AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy defeated Randy Orton and Samoa Joe. The men’s match is a combination of two major feuds and only Styles and Orton appeared on this week’s show. Naomi hasn’t wrestled on television since Money in the Bank on June 17.
Make sure to check out what Styles had to say to Samoa Joe in a great promo.
Opinion: I like it when WWE makes these tag matches for the dark segments. You can have the same singles matches every week but throwing together a team like Samoa Joe and Orton is something you’re not going to get to see anywhere else. That’s cool stuff and makes the show feel like something that gives the fans something special. It also helps when you can get a few extra big names on the card, which can always help bring up attendance.
Which of these matches interests you more? Do you think either will take place on TV? 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 28 wrestling books. His latest book is the the Complete 2003 Monday Night Raw Reviews.
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