With the road to WrestleMania nearing its destination, "The Viper" Randy Orton looked to strike Thursday night as World Wrestling Entertainment presented the latest episode of SmackDown.
Roman Reigns was without a partner, battling Seth Rollins and Kane in a handicap match. After improbably picking up the win (if improbably means "of course he would win"), Reigns found himself on the receiving end of an Authority beatdown.
Cue Orton's theme music and a well-timed run-in.
The former heavyweight champion dropped his former associates with a flurry of RKOs before standing tall, side by side with Reigns to close out the show.
The reaction for Orton was phenomenal, proving that his face turn is working extremely well, almost to the point that it has overshadowed Reigns' journey to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
That makes the St. Louis native one of the March 19 show's biggest winners.
Who joined him in that category and who went the opposite direction, emerging from the SyFy network broadcast as a loser, just days left to reverse their fortunes?
Take a look for yourself.
Loser: Roman Reigns
After a strong few weeks, Wednesday night featured more lethargic booking of the No. 1 contender.
With the John Cena character being as stale as it is, the last thing fans want is a carbon copy. While not the goody two-shoes that the leader of the Cenation is, Reigns overcame the odds Wednesday night to win a handicap match he realistically had no shot at emerging victoriously from.
It was another instance of WWE Creative booking its top babyfaces to look like Superman when fans would be far more interested in a Batman type who has his weaknesses and, gasp, even has them exploited by the villains from time to time.
Instead, Reigns looks like a world beater, incapable of being hurt by his fellow Superstars, something that will not endear him to the audience when the time comes to crown him the new face of the company at WrestleMania.
Winners: Daniel Bryan and Dolph Ziggler
Shortly after the Royal Rumble this past January, Dolph Ziggler and Daniel Bryan took to Twitter and began pushing for a singles match between them at WrestleMania.
Unfortunately, that will not happen, as both are involved in the Ladder match for the intercontinental Championship. Fans who tuned intoSmackDown Thursday night, however, got a glimpse of what they will be missing out on come March 29, as Ziggler and Bryan delivered an outstanding final fall in the Gauntlet match that ate up 30 minutes of television time this week.
Bryan, after a hard-fought victory over Luke Harper, and Ziggler proved their abilities and chemistry with some outstanding action that concluded with the Showoff countering the Yes Lock, ducking a kick and delivering the Zigzag for the pinfall win.
Simply outstanding work from two men who will be counted on heavily to ensure the overall quality of the IC title bout at WrestleMania.
Losers: The Tag Teams
Tyson Kidd, Cesaro and Los Matadores are gearing up for what is likely to be a multiteam match at WrestleMania with the company's tag straps at stake. But instead of seizing the spotlight Thursday night, the focus was put on Natalya and El Torito, something that severely diminishes the credibility of the titles.
Natalya pinned El Torito to win the match for her team. While some will justify the finish, stating that it allows both teams involved in the title hunt to remain strong while Torito takes the pin, those fans are not looking at the bigger picture.
Instead of the tag titles being taken seriously and treated with respect, they played second fiddle to a comedy act and a Diva who cannot sustain a push in her own division.
How can fans be expected to get excited for tag title bouts when the men and women put in charge of booking them cannot?
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