The biggest winners and losers of last night's SmackDown (August 27)

Supposedly, Vince McMahon tore up the script from last night's WWE SmackDown and started it over from scratch. It showed in the production, because this week's edition was noticeably worse than the previous few episodes. The rivalry between Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton remained good, but much of the rest of the show lagged, with some questionable booking decisions and the Wildcard Rule taking up precious airtime.

Who got the most and least out of last night's show? Let's go ahead and take a look.

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Loser: Buddy Murphy

Buddy Murphy and Ali were two of the pillars of 205 Live, with many memorable matches between them last year that made the purple brand one of WWE's most valuable commodities for the time you spent watching it. It's no surprise that the two put on an excellent match when paired together on the bigger stage that they both deserved.

Yet, someone explain to me how Buddy Murphy could beat no less a figure than Daniel Bryan last week, take Roman Reigns to the absolute limit the week before, and now lose to Ali who hasn't done anything of note in months?

It's precisely because of this kind of hot/cold, start/stop booking that WWE feels like it has no larger than life stars anymore. This is one of the biggest reasons why the company has failed to build a true megastar since John Cena.

That isn't to say that Murphy would be that guy, but you get the idea. He was on a hot streak, now he's being undercut.

And the excuse that he can now focus on being part of the Roman Reigns whodunit angle doesn't fly. That would only make winning King of the Ring seem more important, not less.

One step forward, two steps back, like always.

Loser: Kevin Owens

All of the momentum that Kevin Owens built before SummerSlam is starting to ebb. This as a result of his feud with Shane McMahon and his lackeys, which continues despite reaching its natural endpoint.

Instead of doing something more notable, Kevin Owens spent last night looking for Shane in his empty office and finding himself embroiled with Elias and the 24/7 title scene.

Where is Kevin Owens' character going? It's hard to tell right now.

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Winner: Chad Gable

Chad Gable actually won a match on television for the first time in forever. It was against his former tag team partner, Shelton Benjamin, who also hasn't been in a match on television in forever. The result was that nobody was really into this match. Nevertheless, Gable made the most of it.

There's zero chance that Chad Gable wins the King of the Ring tournament, but if he performs well enough, maybe he'll get some second wind.

In fact, with NXT coming to USA, both of these guys feel like they could be better off under the yellow lights.

Losers: Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan

Although there was a dramatic reveal of footage showing Rowan being the culprit, the drama didn't exactly unfold in an exciting way. In an anticlimax, Daniel Bryan lashed out at his own ally, calling him a liar and trying to proclaim his own innocence. He got a spear for his efforts.

The story itself isn't bad, but the pacing has been off, and this week, it felt like it jumped the shark. If Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns were going to get into a rivalry, they could have done so in a far more satisfying and exciting fashion than what has been the case in the past few weeks.

The best part about this angle is that it's given some shine to Buddy Murphy. Neither of the two major players involved in it have benefited nearly as much. That's an indictment of WWE's tired creative team.