7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE SmackDown (Jan 22)

4. That Entire Opening Segment

Damn, this was great.

After some early struggles and fluffing one of his lines ("You're sitting here standing"), Roman Reigns got fired up on Adam Pearce and cut the kind of impassioned promo fans have come to expect from him. Not to be outdone, Pearce refused to over-react and instead warned Paul Heyman not to think he was some hard man too.

That prompted Paul E to go all old school ECW Heyman on Pearce. He put himself over by saying you had to be a man to hang out with the Anoa'i family, and he's done just that since he was 15 - throughout, Pearce's facial expressions expertly sold that he badly wanted to smack Paul right in the chops, but knew he'd get a kicking from Reigns if he did.

Man, everyone played their parts so well here. Roman's fire, Heyman's New Yorker bluster, Pearce's facial expressions and tension so thick you could cut it with a knife. This is what one of those standard WWE talking skits should be.