2 things that went right on the Feb. 11 episode of SmackDown

This week’s episode of WWE SmackDown emanated from the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans and much like the NBA franchise that usually calls that arena its home, this show was a mess.

However, that doesn’t mean the show was devoid of bright spots, and those glimmers of positivity are what we’re going to discuss today.

These are the top two things that went right on the Feb. 11 episode of SmackDown.

Naomi vs. Charlotte Flair

Sure, few fans expected Naomi to win her third SmackDown Women’s Championship in this main event match against Charlotte, but this match gets the thumbs up for WWE giving these two nearly 20 minutes to and a real finish to work with and these two rewarding that faith with a great outing.

Despite the match having what many thought would be a foregone conclusion, this match featured a handful of great spots and edge-of-your-seat nearfalls, showing that Flair — once again — is as advertised in big matches and Naomi, despite getting taken for granted far too often in WWE, can thrive in these marquee matches and storylines. The post-match stuff to set up the tag match for the propaganda show was fine, too.

You can read about what Raphael Garcia had to say about Naomi/Flair here.

Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman

To hype up the Goldberg/Roman Reigns Universal Title match that the company (and literally nobody else) has hoped would happen for the last year, WWE had Michael Cole conduct respective sit-down interviews with champion and challenger. Bill’s was fine for what it was, but Reigns and Heyman once again shined when it was their time to talk.

Between Reigns and Heyman’s blatant dismissal of Goldberg’s accomplishments in World Championship Wrestling (“If I were in WCW, everyone would be winning because they would still be in business” was a particularly great line from Reigns) and Heyman blowing off Brock Lesnar and the “reigning, defending” spiel, these two proved why they are such a great pair, with “The Tribal Chief’s” promise to “Goldberg” Goldberg serving as the main takeaway.

Did this make me more interested in this match, especially given that it’s happening at the propaganda show? Well, no, but WWE gets points for effort here, and it’s always fun to see Reigns and Heyman interact with each other.