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Last night's SmackDown was an enjoyable episode that saw plenty of development, bar that "Thanksgiving feast fight" segment which was, as all of these food-based segments are, designed only for an audience of one. At least this time the New Day's tiresome nightly antics managed to include the tag team champions in the mix, which wasn't the case during the Bludgeon Brothers' reign.
Elsewhere, though, we got a lot of noteworthy things. SmackDown once again beat Raw this week, although the gap hasn't been as wide as it was earlier in the year of late.
Let's take a look at who got the most and least out of last night's episode.
Winner: Charlotte Flair
I put the word "winner" here tentatively because it was so obvious that WWE was trying to transfer Becky Lynch's heat to Charlotte Flair last night, but it failed badly and will continue to fail if the company keeps on trying it. In fact, it might cause fans to turn against Charlotte again if the company tries to hard to push its luck.
Charlotte was fine last night, but she just doesn't have the charisma and organic connection that Becky Lynch does.
Nevertheless, it's obvious that the company has big plans for her with the imminent arrival of WrestleMania season. Both Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey took verbal shots at each other this week. That's reason enough to think something big is in the works where "the queen" is concerned. The timing of the matter will be its biggest influence - where will this inevitable showdown take place?
Anyway, Charlotte then went on to beat Peyton Royce and Billie Kay in fairly pedestrian matches. During the action itself, WWE again tried to present her as a Becky Lynch badass, but it failed to connect in the same way.
Loser: The Miz
No, it's not the fact that the Miz lost to a comedy jobber that's the problem here. He looks like he's turning babyface, but what's going on with this odd couple pairing with Shane McMahon? This segment didn't do a whole lot for either of the two men, and it fell more into the "Shane McMahon sucking up attention like he usually does" category.
If The Miz has big WrestleMania plans ahead of him, WWE is keeping them close to the vest so far. He might be an ideal and funny foil for Daniel Bryan with the roles reversed, but there haven't been any hints of it yet.
Maybe Shane McMahon is simply the vehicle for The Miz to get in that spot, but that isn't obvious yet. We'll simply need to wait and see what happens. Maybe it's too early to draw a conclusion either way.
Winners: Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville
Unfortunately, it looks like my worst fears for the SmackDown women's division may be coming true and that Mandy Rose is going to get more of a push, despite not being very good at anything. Sonya Deville has more potential, but it's Mandy that will go on to be the star of the duo. Vince McMahon's looks-obsessed worldview guarantees that.
Asuka looked good in this match, but she and Naomi were certainly used as foils to explore the coming breakup of the partnership between Rose and Deville, which has lasted since their main roster call up a year ago, one which some (including me) would say was premature.
We'll have to see where it goes from here, but most of the division is directionless now. Charlotte and Becky's feud masked this, but it's come to the fore now, especially with the latter missing for a while.
Winner: Daniel Bryan
This was a fantastic promo.
Daniel Bryan simultaneously took advantage of his organic connection with the crowd and did his very best to break it all at the same time, leading to a heartbreaking response from fans in attendance.
His explanation was so authentic that it made you love Daniel Bryan as much as you hated him. His references to himself in the third person added even more color to this segment.
Why this wasn't the last segment on the show, in the main event spot, is baffling to me. It certainly deserved to be.
Either way, this is what the WWE Championship so badly needed. It's so refreshing and opens up many new possibilities.
Now we get to see who will ultimately step up to challenge Daniel Bryan. Somehow, I don't think AJ Styles is going to get his title back at TLC next month (nor should he).
Winner: Randy Orton
Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio had a great match to close the show (I won't soon forget that sliding splash attempt from Mysterio that Orton turned into an RKO). However, the real development came afterwards, where Randy Orton slammed Rey Mysterio, who was restrained in a chair, into the turnbuckle.
He then held aloft Rey Mysterio's mask - the ultimate insult to any luchador, much less the greatest one of all time.
Randy Orton's sadistic heel persona has been excellent. It lost some of the shine it had after the feud with Jeff Hardy ended, but Mysterio is a great foil to bring it back. This is going to be a fun feud, that's for sure.
I only wondered to myself as I was watching it last night "why isn't the United States Championship involved here - where is Shinsuke Nakamura?"
SmackDown will need to bring its mid-card title back to television if it's to make the most of heel Orton.
