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The draft is now over and the dust has settled. The new landscape of the company has taken shape with WrestleMania 36 now being slightly closer than further away.
It's time to see who's gotten the most of the opportunities afforded to them and who's been falling behind. The glitz and pomp of the first half of October are behind us for now. It's time for the nitty gritty of building a weekly show in the lag periods, something which WWE has proven unreliable at, at best.
How well did the company do on SmackDown and who got the most and least out of last night's first "normal" show on Fox? Let's take a look and find out.
Loser: "Shorty" Gable
The Viking Experience has been superseded as the worst name change of all time. The title now belongs to the former Chad Gable, who has inexplicably taken up the name "Shorty." He squashed Curtis Axel last night, but the name change obscures everything else as surely as the sun obscures other stars.
They're actually sticking with this name.
It's bad because any take on the word "short" or "little" associates a man with low status and power. That's just the way it is. By putting that word in front of Gable's name, you unconsciously think of him as a little guy, unworthy of respect.
Apologists will say this is part of the underdog angle, but that was hardly needed. The King of the Ring tournament should have proved that. This is going to be death by a thousand cuts when WWE inevitably starts faltering after its first monumental stumble. Gable is now indelibly associated with littleness. That is never going to get a male performer over in the long run.
And WWE wonders why it can't make any stars.
Winner: Bayley
This was one of the better segments in recent months and signals the new direction of the SmackDown women's division. With Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch gone, it feels like a ceiling has been lifted from it, and it's now anyone's game.
Bayley's heel turn was finally cemented with this segment, where she turned her back on everything she once was. "Life sucks and then you die," said the former Hugger when The Miz asked her about the kids she used to inspire so much.
Sasha Banks was there by her side as her best friend, looking just as much the villain. With her finally being on the show she always wanted to be on, she looks like she has a new lease on life too, parachuting softly after her defeat by Becky Lynch.
One of them is obviously going to turn on the other at some point. I think we can finally pencil in our first WrestleMania 36 match with reasonable certainty. But which one? That question is what makes this new division so refreshing.
Winner: Nikki Cross
Speaking of the new SmackDown women's division, once of its newer members got the biggest match of her career last night by winning a six-way number one contender's match against Carmella, Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, Lacey Evans, and Dana Brooke.
Sure, this is a filler feud, but the match was a good showcase for the new division, and Nikki Cross has been a surprising breakout performer in 2019. No one quite expected her to do as well as on the main roster as she has done.
She'll lose the title match against Bayley because of course, she will, but she has a good chance to make an impression and get more title shots in the future. Finally separated from Alexa Bliss in the draft, her singles career looks like it might be promising, and the match with Bayley will be the first step on that road.
