Images by @PatLaprade and @JJWilliamsWON
Though Shinsuke Nakamura wasn’t in action on SmackDown after making his main roster debut, he was involved in a dark match against Dolph Ziggler after 205 Live went off the air.
Pro wrestling historian and author Pat Laprade sent in notes on the matches that went on at the Amway Center that weren’t shown on television:
Pre-show dark match —
– American Alpha defeated The Vaudevillains in a short five-minute match after hitting Grand Amplitude.
Post-show dark match —
– Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Dolph Ziggler with the Kinshasa in 8:20.
This was a good match. The crowd was really into it. Most of those who stayed for 205 Live stayed for the match. There were chants of “Shinsuke’s gonna kill you” and the same chant the Europeans did for Sheamus and Cesaro but with Nakamura’s name.
Ziggler mimicked Nakamura a few times which got him a lot of heat.
At one point, a beach ball found its way to the first row and people got all crazy about it. I don’t know if Ziggler planned this or not but he applied a rest hold to Nakamura until the crowd got back into the match, i.e. until someone took away the beach ball.
Ziggler took most of the match, then Nakamura did a short comeback and hit the Kinshasa for the win.
