The biggest winners and losers of last night's WWE SmackDown (January 3)

The Holidays are over, and in WWE, that means that the road to WrestleMania has begun, although it won't be official until the Royal Rumble. The company didn't waste any time in leaving its December sleepy mode, thankfully. Last night's SmackDown was the best in a long time.

Since the draft, the blue brand has struggled to find its footing, but last night signaled a new direction as the most important months on the WWE calendar begin. Namely, it was a night of big returns.

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

Winner: Dana Brooke

It's surprising to type those very words, but here we are. She wasn't the focus of the match (her partner, Lacey Evans has a big match coming up after all, unfortunately), but she got a big win over Sasha Banks at the end of it and did more in this match than she has perhaps since 2016.

Is it likely that this will be sustained? Probably not, but maybe she's turning enough eyeballs to find a place in the tag team division, which at any rate would be a big step up from where she's been in the past few years, which is either losing in seconds or not on TV at all.

Winner: Sheamus

It wasn't a match, but Sheamus made his return to the ring last night, flattening Shorty G after his victory against Dash Wilder.

Sheamus is a well known and loved veteran and a feud between him and Shorty G should at least make for some great wrestling on television. It will give the latter a renewed singles focus (has the team with Mustafa Ali petered out?). Meanwhile, it's a good feud for Sheamus to re-establish himself after being absent for nearly a year.