The biggest winners and losers from last night's SmackDown (July 24)

Unsurprisingly, the blue brand destroyed its older red counterpart this week. All systems are go as we head toward SummerSlam, in contrast to Raw, where confusion and apathy still very much dominate the build on the road to Brooklyn.

With the exception of the unceremonious end of a James Ellsworth who just destroyed the credibility of the women's division, preventing a real payoff, everything about last night was great. All angles moved along, and the blue brand's card for the biggest party of the summer is something every fan should be looking forward to.

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With such a strong cast of characters, were there any real losers on last night's show? And who took the most from this fantastic episode of SmackDown?

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Winner: Randy Orton

Randy Orton was dead as a babyface. You could see it not only in his subpar ring work, but in his very eyes. You could tell that he just didn't care.

As a heel, he's suddenly far less of the boring reputation he's cultivated for himself in recent years. Quite the opposite, actually. He looks alive, he expresses himself better, and he even has a drive in his eyes which was totally absent as a babyface.

In explaining his actions, he got a crowd which wanted to cheer him to do the opposite. He vowed he'd destroy Jeff Hardy before moving on to any other "indy darling" that suddenly has the fans' respect more than he does despite 16 years of dedicated service to entertaining them.

Clear, simple, crisp, and believable. This was easily Orton's best segment in well over a year. Heel Randy Orton is best Randy Orton, and while this currently leaves a shortage of top male babyfaces on SmackDown, it was the choice that should have been made a long time ago.

Winners: Andrade "Cien" Almas and Rusev

Heel vs. heel...really? Because it sure sounded like Rusev was getting some of the biggest babyface reactions of the night.

The two battled back and forth in an excellent TV match, but ultimately, a confrontation between Lana and Zelina Vega caused Rusev to lose to the tried and true distraction finish as Almas hit the Hammerlock DDT. Aiden English got involved to make things even more confusing.

Thus protected in defeat, Rusev has a few ways to go from here. Could he finally be turning face using English as the catalyst, or will his popular minstrel just be cast aside so Rusev can go back to his boring old evil foreigner gimmick? I'll hope for the best, but I know I shouldn't.

Meanwhile, Almas got another big win. A feud heading to SummerSlam with Rusev should be the way for both of them to go.

Winner: Samoa Joe

Samoa Joe was awesome here. Ambushing styles in the aftermath of the confusion James Ellsworth caused, he signed his name to the SummerSlam contract and punched his ticket to Brooklyn. Normally simply announcing a #1 contender falls a bit flat, but this time was far, far different.

Samoa Joe has a talent for bringing an intense realism to anything he does and that's what we saw here. If the company doesn't drop the ball on this (though we shouldn't have any faith in them at this point), this could be one of 2018's best feuds.

Winner: Becky Lynch

I'll categorize this under a tepid "winner" category. Sure, Becky Lynch punched her ticket to SummerSlam and seemingly did the impossible by actually dragging a passable match out of Carmella, which Charlotte and Asuka failed to do.

Unfortunately, WWE's cookie cutter booking formula threatens to rear its ugly head. Becky tapped Carmella clean in the middle of the ring with no fuss or shenanigans. That usually bodes ill for a challenger. Has a challenger ever defeated a champion after beating them clean in a non-title match? Because the champion almost always gets the win back.

And that would be catastrophic for the SmackDown women's division.

Losers: SAnitY

SAnitY has been picking up some wins lately, but they lost the match that actually mattered. In being eliminated from the tournament, the New Day seemingly ended their mini-feud.

Hopefully, The Bar makes some magic happen, because the last thing the SmackDown tag team division needs now is another New Day title reign. Sorry, but the team is now stale, entirely centred around the one trick pony of pancakes. It got old many months ago.

The Bludgeon Brothers are at least a new dynamic as champions.

Winners: Daniel Bryan and The Miz

This really shouldn't have main evented over the WWE contract signing and it was obviously a PR stunt, but in a rare case of WWE promotion, it actually worked. Miz throwing the baby to Daniel Bryan, only for it to be revealed as a doll before hitting his rival with the Skull Crushing Finale, will always serve as a memorable moment.

Bryan and Miz's road to SummerSlam is set and it will be fun to see what's in store for them next week.

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