The biggest winners and losers from last night's SmackDown (June 5)

SmackDown last night was neither good nor bad. It was kind of just there, though it still proved superior to the recent showings from the red brand, which have been actively bad rather than just the bland kind of bad. The show took place in Corpus Christi, Texas, a town infamous among fans for its dead reactions, though a few superstars did indeed get some responses from the crowd.

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With the exception of one storyline, nothing really felt important last night. We saw a tepid contract signing between AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura that didn't do anything to advance their feud, a 6-man tag team match that, while fun, was ultimately meaningless, and a random mixed tag in the middle of the show. It really did feel like SmackDown was on autopilot.

However, some people did manage to walk away from the town infamously called "Corpses Christi" by the WWE Universe with some wind in their sails. But who?

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Winner: Asuka

Carmella remains heatless, and her segment died the usual death that her segments tend to do in front of live crowds, but it did advance the feud between her and Asuka, and thankfully, it wasn't anywhere near the series of catastrophic segments we've seen over on Raw between Bobby Lashley and Sami Zayn.

Carmella is trying to show Asuka's lack of confidence following her defeat to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania, advancing the former's character and giving her a new obstacle to overcome.

Asuka did so by taking on Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville in a handicap match, winning in the end, only to be blindsided by Carmella.

It's interesting to note that WWE opted not to show Carmella eliminating Asuka from an NXT battle royal in January of 2016. This is a surprising respect for continuity and canon, as they've chosen to ignore that elimination. After building this kind of angle, one has to imagine that Asuka is more the favorite to walk out with the championship at Money in the Bank, as a loss following this build would do a lot of damage to her character, and it appears that WWE wants to keep her strong.

Winner: Sonya Deville

Between Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, it's the latter that's shown far more potential. Sonya had her best showing to date, and it helped that her style meshes well with Asuka's. At one point, both seemed to knock each other out with high kicks. Her segments with Asuka last night delivered and it would certainly be intriguing to see them have a longer singles match in the future.

Sonya was the one that ultimately tapped to the Asuka Lock, but no one would complain to see a more extended match.

Losers: The Bludgeon Brothers

The tag team champions make their first live appearance on TV in what seems like forever only to have one of them lose as an afterthought in a throwaway match, just to make the filler opponents look like they have a chance when we all know they really don't.

Unfortunately, the tag team division has really fallen off a cliff since WrestleMania, on both brands, when it previously used to be one of the company's standouts. Let's hope this situation is rectified once Money in the Bank is behind us and SummerSlam draws closer.

Winner: Andrade "Cien" Almas

This is a good way to heat Almas into his first real feud on the main roster. We saw him turning his back on a former friend because that former friend was part of the old life that held him down, as Zelina Vega explained. Almas viciously ambushed Sin Cara to showcase his dominance.

A match was set between the two for next week. According to the reports from the house show circuit, these two have good chemistry together in the ring. Though I expect it to be a glorified squash, it should still be fun to watch.

Loser: Big Cass

While his ex Carmella has trouble getting crowds invested in her, none of her segments have bombed as badly as this one did. Big Cass died a horrible death out there last night. It seems like that one appearance on Miz TV was the very big outlier.

The segment was flopping like a fish out of water as absolutely no one in the crowd cared about Cass or this angle. It's not hard to see why. Cass is a charisma black hole, the entire angle has become about Daniel Bryan being short and his opponent tall, and no one wanted to see this feud in the first place.

There are few people less deserving of a big push than Cass. He's shown it almost every time he steps out onto the stage.