5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (9 Aug)

4. Winner: American Alpha

There’s very little competition for American Alpha on SmackDown. While The Usos have tenure and experience, they’ve not been a serious factor in the tag division for a long time, and The Vaudevillains, Ascension, Hype Bros, and Breezango aren’t exactly dripping with prestige either. The ultra-talented Jason Jordan and Chad Gable are very well-positioned to become breakout stars on the blue brand, and they benefited from a strong showing this week.

Beating a couple of local competitors doesn’t accomplish much in the long-run, but it’s an ideal way to introduce Jordan & Gable to the mainstream audience. Alpha were given an opportunity to showcase their abilities, and that’s exactly what they did: they defeated their jobber opponents in quick fashion, and when a division-wide melee kicked off afterwards, they were the ones standing tall.

While the fight itself felt like a contrived way to get all the active teams in the same place at the same time, American Alpha are clearly being set up as the division’s stars. With SmackDown’s tag titles seemingly on the way, Jordan & Gable must be considered the early favourites to win the gold.

The division’s long-term prospects don’t look excellent unless it’s beefed-up with another team or two, but the uber-likeable American Alpha are set to explode, and in time, they’ll have gold around their waists.