The biggest winners and losers of last night's SmackDown (February 26)

Compared to Raw, SmackDown this week served up a disappointing show, except in one notable area.

Fastlane is a notorious filler pay per view, but while the return of Roman Reigns was always going to get shine on Raw, this week's episode of the blue brand didn't have much notable to it, except for some surprise returns that mostly went flat.

Elsewhere, we got another unnecessary Charlotte Flair promo instead of a good follow up with what happened with Asuka last week, the United States Championship still feels like the least important part of the midcard, and worries with the NXT call ups linger, not to mention Lacey Evans' walk down the ramp getting stupider by the week.

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

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Winner: Kofi Kingston

Well, those concerns about Fastlane have been erased. Kevin Owens returned and took Kofi Kingston's spot at the most filler of filler pay per views. That's great news for Kofi Kingston. It means a WrestleMania showdown with Daniel Bryan is all but certain.

Given how hot Kingston is, why not run with it? This was a smart decision from WWE. Owens has routinely disappointed in the main event scene, so there's good cause to get his title shot over quickly and send him back down to the mid card.

Fortunes certainly can rise and fall fast in this company.

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Losers: The Bar

Speaking of falling fortunes, let's remember that The Bar were tag team champions just last month. Now they're losing left and right. Obviously, the return of Matt Hardy was going to get some buzz. Why not throw one of the lower-rung tag teams out there to take the loss though? It isn't like SAnitY has been doing anything better of late.

The Bar is one of the few legitimate tag teams in the entire company, so it was saddening to see them used so badly.

Winner: R-Truth

The United States Championship needed some relevancy, so it getting back on television was a good thing. R-Truth retained the title after a rollup to Rey Mysterio, so nobody looked too weak.

Are we getting some kind of match at Fastlane? The goal here should be to get the title to Andrade "Cien" Almas, who would be able to restore it to credibility after a year in the doldrums. The matches he can put on would shine in SmackDown's midcard.

We'll have to see what happens, but Andrade not taking the pin here might suggest good things for him for Fastlane.

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Winners: Aleister Black and Ricochet

Aleister Black and Ricochet continue to get booked strongly, as they won again last night. It's notable that Black took the victory on both occasions with the Black Mass. It's smart of WWE to try and get that finisher over.

The concerns from yesterday are the same - these two shouldn't be randomly stuck together in a tag team. However, they are teaming in the upcoming Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic episodes on NXT, so this is fine for now. It just shouldn't last too long.

Loser: Daniel Bryan

For two weeks in a row, Daniel Bryan has been pinned. It's just pure laziness. WWE seems clueless about how to build a challenger in quick time without pinning the champion. In the process, the champion and title looks weak.

If there was no other way to build the challenger, Rowan was amply available to take the fall.

There's no way Bryan is losing his title at Fastlane, but it just makes the exercise so pointless. Why even go through with it then? Why have the champion needlessly take a pin? Why have the challenger win except where it counts?

This kind of booking is one of the reasons why nobody in WWE is a star. If Vince McMahon lamented last week that he had no stars left and needed NXT's best, he should only look in the mirror. He's been booking people this way for years.