The biggest winners and losers of last night's SmackDown (June 25)

In the latest WWE NEWS, with the exception of an excellent main event, SmackDown capped off a lackluster week in WWE. Even Raw managed to outperform this show, as tired booking tropes and retreads of rivalries we've just seen asserted themselves all over the show. The months between WrestleMania and the build to SummerSlam are notorious on the WWE calendar for staging filler, but this year has seen it totally undisguised, almost as if the company is telling us that nothing we see on screen matters.

It's a questionable philosophy they should try to fix, pronto.

Did anyone manage to take anything away from last night's show?

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Losers: Daniel Bryan and Rowan

Aside from WWE throwing a monkey wrench into the biggest tag team match they could have booked for SummerSlam and giving this away too early, an overused booking trope reared its ugly head. For the second time this week, champions lost cleanly in a non-title match.

And then the company wonders why it feels like nothing matters.

Afterward, we got a trainwreck of a four team tag match that saw some dissension between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, but we've gone down this road so many times before that we shouldn't take anything out of that.

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Loser: The Miz

Once again, The Miz falls prey to Shane McMahon: Super Villain. Shane McMahon prevented his victory in the match by creating distractions, and orchestrating a beatdown before the the deciding fall could take place. Elias then took advantage of a battered Miz to register the win. Shane proceeded to hit Coast-to-Coast on The Miz to addd insult to injury.

Of course, Miz won't get back at Shane McMahon. Why is this feud still continuing? It almost feels like Miz is being punished.

Remember a few years ago when fans used to complain about Stephanie McMahon degrading everyone, and it was made worse because the wrestlers had no chance of retaliation?

That's where we're at with Shane McMahon. He's taken up his sister's torch.

See WWE Smackdown Results, Highlights of event, & more on WWE Smackdown Results page

Loser: Bayley / Winner: Nikki Cross

This is an odd one. On the one hand, this match was the third time this week that a champion lost a non title match. Worse, all this did was set up yet ANOTHER rematch at Extreme Rules. That's the third championship rematch from Stomping Grounds on the same card!

On the other hand, this could mean something for Nikki Cross, giving her fuel to eventually break her alliance with Alexa Bliss and vault herself into higher places in the women's division. That remains to be seen though. WWE does things like this for ad hoc purposes far more often than not.

It's a small 'w' for Nikki Cross at the moment.

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Loser: Ember Moon

Of all the former NXT Women's Champions, Ember Moon has been treated the worst. This could have been a good match, and it's nice to see Sonya Deville - possibly the most underrated performer in the women's division - getting the spotlight. Yet, Mandy Rose was the centerpiece here - creating distractions, causing Ember Moon to lose, and once again showing where WWE's priorities lie.

As is often the case, it's the wrong choice. Deville won't benefit from this victory and Ember Moon has been set back again.

Winner: Kofi Kingston

Finally, this feud has ended, and it ended in great fashion. Where was this intensity and execution during Super Showdown and Stomping Grounds?

Kofi Kingston defeated Dolph Ziggler in a nail-biting two out of three falls match to close SmackDown and reward viewers who stuck through an hour and a half of nonsense to get there.

And thankfully, this means that we won't be getting yet another championship rematch at Extreme Rules. Samoa Joe is going to take on Kofi Kingston one on one. That's at least something to look forward to. The company badly needs more selling points for its pay-per-views.

Samoa Joe vs. Kofi Kingston in a stipulation match is going to rule and should easily be the best match on the Extreme Rules card, despite the event being three weeks away and the card incomplete.

Let's hope this feud will be enough to carry the entire company until then - R Truth's stellar comedic work with the 24/7 title notwithstanding.