HEYDORN’S SMACKDOWN RECEIPT 2/12: Rollins vs. Cesaro works, but Seth needs to better finesse his act this time around

This week’s episode of WWE Smackdown has wrapped. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and relive some of the madness.

-One of the best elements of the new Roman Reigns character is the fact that WWE is going all the way with it. Hedging? What hedging? Roman is the Head of the Table. Week to week he acts like it. Elimination Chamber match? “Nah, I’ll pass,” Roman says. Great stuff. Adam Pearce continues to be the sympathetic opposite of Reigns and it emphasizes the heel Reigns act perfectly.

-Line of the night goes to Big E with the jab at Tom Brady’s Super Bowl boat party gallivanting fun.

-Speaking of Big E, the match against Shinsuke Nakamura was confusing. Attention WWE. Big E is a babyface. Nakamura just turned babyface. Can we not dilute their ability to shine in those roles by having to face each other? It was a means to an end to further the Big E vs. Crews story, but a multitude of other heel talents are on the roster to fill that spot. Use them.

-I’ll take Seth Rollins vs. Cesaro all the livelong day. Here’s to hoping Rollins can finesse the “I’m your leader” gimmick better on Smackdown than he did on Raw. The act started out fine, but sunk into cookie cutter nonsense with religious undertones that Rollins couldn’t genuinely keep up with. Rollins has something with this, but needs to walk the line more effectively.

-I continue to like the chemistry between Sasha Banks and Bianca Belair. Some of their lines this week were too clever for their own good, but both Banks and Belair got them over with their personalities. This is the WrestleMania match to make, WWE.

-The Elimination Chamber qualifiers made sense and gave the match some stakes that the Raw chamber doesn’t have at the moment. More importantly, outside of Zayn and Corbin, everyone else in the match has some history with Reigns. Seeing as the winner of the match will face him on the same show, it’s important to continue building those stories up.

-Stunners anyone? Yes, it’s cheesy and overdone. I get it, folks. I’m still on board with a good Stunner fest to end shows.

NOW CHECK OUT HEYDORN’S WEEKLY EDITORIAL TAKE: HEYDORN’S TAKE: Don’t hold me to this – NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day