5 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE WrestleMania SmackDown (Mar 31)

2. Main Event Showdown

There was nothing fancy about Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes going nose-to-nose on SmackDown. There didn't need to be. Both men have done the hard yards heading into Sunday's colossal tussle, so this was more of a photo op than anything else.

It was also an excuse for Cody to bite back and shoot from the hip. He gave Roman receipts for those earlier AEW and Stardust digs by pointing out that Reigns was a 10-year WWE project who only started taking off in year 8. Ooft! That was snappy, and it had more impact because the 'Tribal Chief' didn't really retort.

About that: Roman kept his promo on the shorter side, and only said that Rhodes will be forced to acknowledge him after WrestleMania. By keeping things so brief, Reigns gave Cody the floor to return fire, then gave cameras the pic they came for.

WWE can be proud of how they've told this story.