The biggest winners and losers of last night's SmackDown (December 6)
Last night's SmackDown, with the exception of the main event, was rote. Is it just me or has the show gotten worse since the move to FOX?
I don't know what it is about WWE, but they just seem incapable of putting on two good main roster shows at the same time. When the quality of one starts ticking up, the other inexorably declines, a dynamic that's been going on ever since the original brand extension in 2002!
Anyway, let's talk about more recent history. December is usually the laziest month on the WWE calendar, so in some ways, this should have been predictable. Who managed to get the most out of last night's show? Who got the least?
Winner: The Miz
And just like that, The Miz is more prominent than he's been in what feels like forever. Bray Wyatt is targeting his family and now, suddenly, he'll have common cause with his old worst enemy, Daniel Bryan, against a much bigger threat than either of them could have imagined.
This is an intriguing story at the top of SmackDown's card. It will be interesting to see how Bray Wyatt escalates his attacks from here. How long the story lasts will be the key question. It probably will last until the Royal Rumble in some form and hopefully WWE won't mess it up.
Loser: Elias
I've long given up any hopes that Elias would get a sustained push even to a midcard title. Yet, he's a lot more capable than this. I don't know what it is about Drake Maverick, but Vince McMahon seems to love putting him in awful humiliation segments solely crafted for an audience of one.
This was a waste of everyone's time. Bring back the Elias that gets cheap heat before taking a beating from a good performer, please.