WWE SmackDown Results: Biggest Winners, Losers and Moments from February 19

SmackDown is traditionally the last opportunity WWE Superstars have to make an impact ahead of a major pay-per-view extravaganza, and Thursday night was no different.

Seth Rollins, Big Show, Kane and J&J Security established their dominance, leaving Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan and Ryback lying in a heap in the center of the ring to close out the evening's broadcast.

As a result of the events that occurred with those six competitors, a huge Six-Man Tag Team bout has been added to the WWE Fastlane card.

But that match was not the only one to earn the attention of fans and WWE Creative ahead of Sunday's event.

Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns each picked up big wins prior to their much-anticipated main event, defeating the Miz and Luke Harper respectively. Rusev responded to John Cena's beatdown from Monday night by demolishing the Usos and Tyson Kidd, while Paige proved that she is on quite the roll just days before her Divas Championship match against Nikki Bella.

With one last opportunity to sell the February 22 spectacular to its audience, WWE did a fine job with another solid episode of SmackDown.

But who emerged from Thursday's show riding a wave of momentum into this weekend's pay-per-view? Who suffered from poor booking, disappointing losses or lackluster performances?

Take a look now with the winners and losers from the February 19 episode of SmackDown.

Winner: Luke Harper

No matter how much WWE Creative continues to let him down, Harper still performs at a high level every opportunity he gets. He again proved why he may well be the most talented big man in all of sports entertainment right now on Thursday, delivering an excellent performance as he battled Roman Reigns in singles competition.

Though he suffered another defeat in a long line of them, Harper arguably came out of the match better off than he was going in because he proved he could have a high-quality match against the guy tapped to be the next face of the company.

While it is looking unlikely that Harper will find a spot of any great meaning on the WrestleMania card come March 29, if he can continue to prove his worth to the company through outstanding matches against top stars, there will come a day when WWE finally realizes the talent it has in him and opts to do something special with the former Wyatt Family member.

Loser: Erick Rowan

One of Luke Harper's fellow former Wyatt Family members, Erick Rowan, continued his lackluster and disappointing start to 2015 on Thursday night, losing to Big Show in a match in which he had no real offense to speak of.

Instead, he was treated like an enhancement talent—a punching bag for a giant whose tediousness has earned him his fair share of criticism thus far into the new year.

Then, to cap off what was already an awful night for the lamb mask-wearing big man, he joined Ryback and Dolph Ziggler for another beatdown, this time at the hands of the Authority.

For a brief moment of time last November, it appeared as though Erick Rowan may be the unlikely breakout star of the Wyatt Family. A loss to Big Show at TLC and poor booking since has erased those thoughts, and he is now but another faceless Superstar in the mangled mess known as the WWE midcard.

Loser: Bad News Barrett

It may be early, but the award for most underwhelming return of 2015 definitely goes to Bad News Barrett.

Every ounce of momentum he had prior to the injury he suffered at the hands of Jack Swagger last spring has disappeared, and in its place is a poor imitation of the character that got over with the audience.

Barrett's stupid ripoff of TMZ has failed to catch on with audiences, and his recent string of losses has only devalued him and the Intercontinental Championship further than they already had been. That he was pinned by R-Truth, whose days of winning meaningful matches came to a screeching halt way back in 2011, only intensified the problems.

Now, he enters Fastlane looking every bit the lame-duck champion, and were he to beat Dean Ambrose, it would only make the Lunatic Fringe look worse.

While getting the title off of him come Sunday will only serve to further hurt him, Ambrose is far too special a performer to be significantly damaged via loss to a guy WWE Creative can never seem to truly go all in with.

And it is a shame, because Barrett is easily one of the most talented, still relatively young, performers on the entire roster.

Winner: Rusev

The United States champion rebounded from the attack he suffered at the hands of John Cena on Monday night by reestablishing his dominance. How? By laying out the Usos and Tyson Kidd all by himself.

That's right. The Bulgarian Brute pummeled the tag team champions and one of the breakout stars of NXT in 2014 on his own, leaving them lying and issuing a threat to Cena in his native tongue.

Heading into Sunday's show, Rusev is one of the most intriguing athletes to watch. His match with Cena is easily the biggest and most important of his young career. More importantly, the bout is one that WWE Creative has been building to from the moment Rusev debuted.

Like him or not, John Cena is certain to bring his A-game. He always does, especially when the build and hype for a match is off the charts, as is the case with Sunday's U.S. title bout. Now, it will be up to Rusev to channel everything he has learned over the past year, display his tremendous skill and deliver the match of a lifetime.

If he can, expect to see the Russian defector earn a new level of respect. If not, questions surrounding his ability to perform at a main event level will begin to overwhelm.

On Thursday night, though, he capped off his final televised appearance before Fastlane with a vicious, brutal beatdown, during which he showed great intensity, which is exactly what he needed.

Losers: The Tag Teams

While Rusev's beatdown helped him recover nicely from Monday's assault, the Usos, Tyson Kidd and Cesaro were made to look like also-rans just days out from their WWE Tag Team Championship match at Fastlane.

WWE Creative has spent a decent amount of time building a tag team rivalry suitable of a pay-per-view title bout between the teams, going as far as to interject Natalya and Naomi into the proceedings in an attempt to add a personal edge to the rivalry.

Then, in one night, they reminded fans that tag teams will never be taken as seriously as singles stars by sacrificing them to put Rusev over.

Were Los Matadores busy? What was the New Day up to? Could a team further down the card not have taken one for the team and played tackling dummy for Rusev rather than the two teams involved in the big title bout this Sunday night?

Apparently not, as fans witnessed on Thursday.

The Usos, Kidd and Cesaro will still wrestle an outstanding match come Sunday night. Their talent will not allow for anything less. But their credibility took a hit on SmackDown, when one man proved he could run right over them with relative ease.