The biggest winners and losers of last night's SmackDown (January 17)
Last night's SmackDown was unfortunately a mediocre showing. Though WWE has attempted to promote the blue brand as the premier program in the company following the move to FOX, Raw has been far and away the stronger of the two main roster brands after October's draft.
For some reason, WWE just has trouble producing two strong brands at the same time, and has all the way had the same issue since the first brand extension began in 2002.
With the Royal Rumble just a little over a week away, who got the most and least out of last night's SmackDown? Let's take a look.
Winner: Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan has no chance of actually winning the title at the Royal Rumble and his WrestleMania match is in doubt, but last night saw him reunite with Kane and spruce up the feud with the Fiend. While the Big Red Machine will enter the Royal Rumble match, Bryan challenged the Fiend to a strap match.
Even after all this time, Team Hell No is still an entertaining act, and while Kane won't be around for long, perhaps the two will have a fun match at WrestleMania of some kind? Either way, Daniel Bryan has more going for him than he did last week.
Winner: John Morrison
John Morrison returned to a WWE ring last night when he did battle with Big E. Morrison went over cleanly, looking like he hasn't skipped a beat since the last time we saw him under the WWE umbrella.
This will certainly lead to a tag team match between the two with the titles on the line at the Royal Rumble. Perhaps the most Awesome tag team in the world might actually win, given their momentum right now.
They would be a more interesting choice of champions than the New Day right now, anyway.