Prior to Friday Night SmackDown, there were a pair of dark matches featuring NXT talent in Tampa, Florida.
The audience at the Amalie Arena got to see two matches with the first featuring Raw talent Keith Lee defeating Austin Theory.
Theory has worked three dark matches at SmackDown over the past month. He teamed with Harry Smith and defeated Odyssey Jones & Xyon Quinn on July 16th and followed with losses to Jones at the July 23rd and July 30th tapings.
Following their match, Dakota Kai defeated Aliyah. For Aliyah, it was her fourth consecutive week of doing a dark match prior to SmackDown. On July 16th, she lost to Xia Li and beat Indi Hartwell on July 23rd and July 30th.
According to Jacob Cohen, who was live inside the arena, Titus O’Neil came out before SmackDown and greeted everyone in Tampa.
