The biggest winners and losers of last night's SmackDown (May 7)

Ad hoc.
Ad hoc.

WWE's ad-hoc attempt to put band-aids on gunshot wounds continued last night. While the "wild card" rule did deliver a couple of good matches last night, it was at the expense of any semblance of continuity; if this continues, it's going to make it even harder to invest in any characters, because their fortunes could be upended the next week even more easily now.

New tag team champions were crowned and we saw a triple threat WWE Championship match, but was anyone actually made better off last night? Or did the "wild card" rule do what it did on Raw and make everything a huge mess once again?

To begin with, SmackDown did do better than Raw, but that's not unusual. Let's take a look at the fortunes of some of the superstars involved.


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Winners: Daniel Bryan and Rowan

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SmackDown's tag team division was a shambles, and if there's one thing that this "wild card" rule might help, it's that one.

Case in point, The Usos came back to the blue brand to do battle with Daniel Bryan and Rowan in a fantastic match.

Ultimately, Daniel Bryan and Rowan prevailed, becoming the new tag team champions. While this takes Bryan out of WWE Championship contention for a while, there's no way that it's anything long-term, and if there's someone who can bring credibility to those titles, it's him and his partner.


Loser: The Miz

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In another "wild card" rule move, The Miz came out again to attack Shane McMahon, only to again get the worst of the situation. If this continues into Money in the Bank and The Miz doesn't win the cage match decisively, this might well go down as one of the worst feuds of 2018.

The angle was fine until WrestleMania, but why it's continued in the months since is beyond me.

Loser: Ember Moon

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Ember Moon being pinned by Mandy Rose is far from the best way to use the former NXT Women's Champion. It's notable that Charlotte and Bayley were gone from this match, after it had been announced as a six woman tag team match.

It's fine to put the actual tag team over in that situation (don't be surprised if Ember and Carmella form one), but why at Moon's expense when Carmella was available?

Afterward, Paige came out with Asuka and Kairi Sane and announced her team would run through her former one. This will end in either some form of shenanigans or worse; it will be a premature start to the feud between the two teams, considering that the tag team titles should come off the IIconics first. It's ironic that it would be better to have the former case become reality, since the company is typically too keen on shenanigans.

Winner: Buddy Murphy

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Though it didn't happen on TV, Murphy finally made an appearance for the blue brand, calling out Ali. If that foreshadows a feud to come, we should rejoice. Everyone should remember how good these two were together on 205 Live.

Hopefully Murphy can make it to television next week. He's too good to not be on there.


Winner: Kofi Kingston

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Kofi Kingston successfully defended his WWE Championship once again, beating Sami Zayn and AJ Styles in a triple threat match when he hit the Trouble in Paradise on the former.

This kept Styles protected en route to his championship match at Money in the Bank and also may have given Kingston more momentum leading into his rivalry with Kevin Owens by pinning his best friend - even though him and Zayn should stay away from each other for a while. Let's hope that the "wild card" rule doesn't stick them together like glue again.

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Edited by Duncan W. Lievi (Dhruva Verma)
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