WWE SmackDown Results: Biggest Winners, Losers and Moments from April 18

With the Superstar Shake-up behind it, SmackDown Live set out to lay the groundwork for the rivalries, stories and characters that will shape the brand over the course of the next year. In doing so, some interesting choices were made, including the crowning of a new No. 1 contender in Jinder Mahal.

The perennial midcard enhancement talent won a Six-Pack Challenge match Tuesday night live on the USA Network, pinning Sami Zayn with some assistance from The Bollywood Boyz. The win, the biggest of Mahal's career, set him up for a WWE Championship match with Randy Orton, something few fans expected to see given the Indian star's resume.

The former member of comedy act 3MB was the night's biggest winner, but he was not the only Superstar to enjoy a productive night with the blue brand.

Baron Corbin added his name to the winner's side of the argument, courtesy of another strong performance against franchise star AJ Styles, while Charlotte reaffirmed her status as the premier talent in the SmackDown women's division.

Not everyone was as lucky as those three stars, though.

Some found booking decisions to be detrimental to their cause, including former tag team champions American Alpha, who suffered a head-scratcher of a loss, and Luke Harper, whose use since February has been baffling.

Find out why those stars landed where they did in greater detail with this recap of the April 18 episode of SmackDown Live.

Winner: Jinder Mahal

From the moment Jinder Mahal returned to WWE following last July's brand extension, it was apparent that he had been putting in the work both in and out of the ring to better himself.

Ready to seize the opportunity and make the most of his second chance at WWE greatness, he was crisper and more intense between the ropes, something he lacked significantly in his first go-round.

Though he was utilized primarily as enhancement talent, there were signs WWE management wanted to use him more than it had in the past. First, he was paired with Rusev in a tag team of foreign heels. Then he was prominently featured in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania, where he bumped for NFL star Rob Gronkowski.

His shuffling to SmackDown Live opened more opportunity for career growth and fans witnessed Tuesday night just how much WWE wanted to get behind the impressive athlete when he defeated Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Mojo Rawley to become No. 1 contender to the WWE Championship.

The win represents a monumental shift in Mahal's fortunes. After months of unselfishness, while putting others over, he now finds himself poised to compete in a pay-per-view main event against a bona fide Hall of Famer in Randy Orton.

In many ways, his rise feels like that of John Bradshaw Layfield, a longtime mid-card Superstar who came from nowhere in 2004 to become the No. 1 contender to Eddie Guerrero's WWE Championship after SmackDown presented him the opportunity to advance his career.

He won the title and became a sustainable main event villain, ultimately wrapping up his case for his own spot in the Hall of Fame. It is unlikely Mahal will capture the WWE Championship at Backlash, but the precedent is there.

Helping the new top contender's cause is what appears to be the formation of a stable that also involves The Bollywood Boyz. Presenting Mahal as the leader of a faction will only help him get over with fans. Long an afterthought, getting fans to perceive him as a strong leader will help them better accept him as a force on Tuesday nights, rather than a perennial jobber who suddenly hit it big.

One of the most unexpected victories of 2017, Mahal will now have to build on the trust WWE Creative has put in him. His match with Orton is the most significant of his career; if he falters or fails, any chance he had of escaping the midcard abyss will disappear.

With that said, his victory Tuesday night was a potential career-altering one and led to his status as the night's most significant winner.

Loser: Luke Harper

Yes, Luke Harper turned in one of the better and more memorable performances in Tuesday's Six-Pack Challenge match, but it was all for naught as the former Wyatt Family enforcer again lost out on an opportunity for a high-profile singles push.

What makes Harper's case so disappointing is the level of his performance. There are few workers on the SmackDown brand so consistently great in the ring yet so rarely rewarded. This past February, he worked a strong match with Randy Orton at Elimination Chamber, and he then followed it up with some of his most inspired performances to date in both singles and tag team settings.

In the best shape of his life and producing the best work of his career, he has earned more than what he has received from WWE Creative.

Tuesday night should have been his night. He could have easily won the match and rekindled the feud with Orton, leading to a series of superb matches with The Viper. Instead, he was one of the focal points of the No. 1 Contender's match but was nowhere to be found in the closing sequence.

Instead, someone actually sat down in a booking meeting and justified pushing Jinder Mahal rather than Harper, a decision that sounds even more ludicrous when written.

At some point, officials will have no choice but to push Harper, his performances dictating such a move. When the time comes, he will likely do as he has on several occasions and deliver on that opportunity.

Unfortunately, it appears he will have to wait while Vince McMahon throws all of his support behind his latest project, Mahal.

Winner: Baron Corbin

Much like Braun Strowman over on Raw, Baron Corbin is the breakout star of SmackDown Live and a surefire future WWE champion. Tuesday night, he confronted AJ Styles during a backstage promo, showing unwavering confidence as he booked himself a match with The Phenomenal One for later in the show.

The Lone Wolf proceeded to turn in another strong performance against the best wrestler in the world, providing further evidence of his readiness to compete at the top of the card when the time comes.

It is not the first time Corbin has performed at an elite level recently.

On the April 4 episode of SmackDown Live, he stole the show with intercontinental champion Dean Ambrose. Months earlier, him, Styles and Dolph Ziggler closed out 2016 with a Televised Match of the Year candidate.

Since winning the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 32 and making his main roster debut, Corbin has erased all of the doubt that stemmed from his repetitive squash matches and underwhelming showings in NXT.

He has discovered a cocky confidence and appears poised to become the latest pro football star to make the successful transition to the squared circle, capped off with a world title victory.

The question is not "if" at this point, it is "when."

Losers: American Alpha

Do you remember when American Alpha was the hottest tag team in WWE?

Jason Jordan and Chad Gable were coming off an extraordinary run in NXT, where their rivalry with The Revival ignited a tag team revolution in that brand, and were poised to carry their momentum over to SmackDown Live as the face of the division. Unfortunately, inconsistent booking has left them a shell of the act they once were.

Tuesday night's decision to sacrifice them to Epico and Primo was a legitimate head-scratcher in that the heels had not been presented a legitimate threat to anyone beyond The Golden Truth in over a year. They were enhancement talent at best, and candidates for being wished well in their future endeavors at worst.

The thought of them defeating American Alpha was so entirely ridiculous that it likely never crossed the minds of the WWE Universe.

But there Jordan and Gable were, doing the job for the Colons, another loss recorded on a brand that should have been their playground. Instead, they prepare to enter the second half of 2017 ice cold, seemingly unable to generate any sort of momentum for themselves.

Considering the raw ability of both stars, and the tidal wave of great matches and fan support they arrived with, that is a damn shame.

Winner: Charlotte

Charlotte kicked off Tuesday's SmackDown Live and wasted little time giving fans a taste of the character they could expect from her. She was snobby, entitled and disrespectful as she wondered aloud why she had not been gifted a shot at the brand's Women’s Championship right away.

She looked down on Naomi as the current titleholder interrupted her pretentious promo and reiterated her belief that she should have been awarded an opportunity rather than having to earn it.

Earning it proved no problem, though, as the second-generation wrestler proceeded to defeat Naomi in a non-title match later in the show, picking up a guaranteed title shot on next week's broadcast.

Charlotte is the closest thing to a female franchise star WWE has. The company can plaster her picture on posters alongside AJ Styles, Kevin Owens, Randy Orton and Baron Corbin and people will buy her as one of the elite four or five stars the brand has to offer, thanks to the manner in which she has been booked by management.

Her performance Tuesday night backs that statement up.

From the moment she walked through the curtain, she owned the spotlight and presented herself as a star on the level of any main event attraction. That is what separates her from her peers and will only help her reign of dominance continue on Tuesday nights.