5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (30 Aug)

4. Losers: The Vaudevillains

There’s a strong chance that The Vaudevillains will be remembered in much the same way as The Headbangers 15 years from now. Once one of NXT’s most popular acts, Aiden English and Simon Gotch have become a non-entity on SmackDown. They’ve been on a steady downward spiral since debuting back in April, and as demoralising as their slide is, perhaps it was always on the cards.

The ‘Villains are a heavily-gimmicked act that connected with each member of Full Sail University’s smaller audiences, but their success hasn’t translated to main roster fans sitting on the back row of a SmackDown basketball arena. NXT promotes a lively, carnival-like atmosphere in which outlandish gimmicks can thrive, but you can’t say the same for the main roster, and The Vaudevillains are living proof of that.

They mustered little significant offense against The Hype Bros last night, and they were eliminated from the tournament in less than three minutes. They haven’t looked within touching distance of championship gold since wrestling The New Day at Extreme Rules, and now look set for a future pushing up daisies at the bottom of the card. It’s a shame, as both Gotch and English are solid in-ring technicians, but they’re beyond rehabilitation at this point, and fans were never given a reason to care about them in the first place.