5 Biggest Winners & Losers From WWE SmackDown Live (Aug 2)

5. Loser: Heath Slater

Heath Slater is one of WWE’s most under-appreciated performers. He’s no prodigy, but Slater has charisma seeping from every pore, he’s great on the mic, and he’s a perfectly cromulent athlete. Slater isn’t exactly World Title material, but that’s fine: he’s an ideal enhancement talent, a great servant to WWE, and someone who can be used to get any mid-carder over.

There’s real value in what he does, and his current “free agent” story is perfect for him. The former Social Outcast is great in his flamboyant, whiny heel role, and after failing to be drafted two weeks ago, he has a genuine grievance with WWE management.

Slater showed-up on SmackDown last week to stake his claim for a WWE contract, and wound-up getting Gored into oblivion by the returning Rhyno. This week, Slater went straight to General Manager Daniel Bryan with similar intentions. Bryan granted him a match for a contract, and once again, Rhyno came out of nowhere and snapped him in half with a Gore.

Poor old Heath just can’t catch a break at the moment. Not only has he been flattened by Rhyno two weeks in a row, but he now has to overturn The Manbeast in one-on-one competition to have any hope of making it on SmackDown ever again. If the past two shows are anything to go by, Slater’s outlook is incredibly bleak.