Video: Title Matches Take Place Before And After SmackDown Live

Gold before and gold after. This week’s episode of SmackDown Live saw a bit of a shift in focus from the WWE Championship match between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura towards the Money in the Bank ladder matches. With the focus on those two matches, there was less time to focus on the other titles. However, that doesn’t mean the champions and the titles didn’t get any focus throughout the night. That was the case with two titles in the pre and post show dark matches.

In case you didn’t see the regular show, make sure to check out the full results right here.

According to Wrestlinginc.com, both the United States and SmackDown Women’s Titles were defended last night before and after the show respectively. Before the show, United States Champion Jeff Hardy successfully defended his title in front of his home state crowd. After the show ended, SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella defeated home state favorite Charlotte with a rollup while putting her feet on the ropes. Charlotte beat Carmella up after the match was over. You can see the latter match in full below.

Carmella vs Charlotte SmackDown Women's Title Match SD Live Dark Match 5/29/18

Opinion: There’s nothing wrong with bookending shows with title matches like this and that’s the right way to go. Let us see the champions (especially in their home state) doing something fun, even if Charlotte lost. While it might not have been the best television in the world, it’s not like Hardy has anything going on at the moment. Let the live fans have something special and move on. It’s a good idea and one that has worked for a very long time.

Which of these matches interests you more? Who do you want to see Hardy defend against next? 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 27 wrestling books. His latest book is the NXT: The Full Sail Years Volume III: From Dallas To New Orleans.

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