This past Thursday at Wrestling Revolver, former MLW Champion Jacob Fatu wrestled his first ever intergender match against former GCW World Champion and Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champion Masha Slamovich.
I talked to him after the match about intergender wrestling, the WWE Bloodline story, and more.
WWE Bloodline
Fatu is part of the Samoan wrestling dynasty as he is part of the Anoa’i family. He is the son of Samual Fatu (Tonga Kid) which makes him a cousin of the cousins of Jimmy & Jey Uso, Solo Sikoa and Roman Reigns.
Given how intricate and long the Bloodline story has gone on in WWE, I asked Fatu his opinions on the popular storyline.
“They’ve been in there, putting in the work. I mean, we’re talking about three years straight with the storyline, but I’m a fan overall. And the crazy thing is just because I’m related to them when I watch, I think I know what’s going on. Then, they always hit us with that twist. So overall, they’re doing good. Shoutout to the Bloodline, shoutout to the Usos, Fatus, Anoa’is. We’re really all one family.”
I asked Fatu if we perhaps might ever see him get involved in the story.
“In due time, it could be there, it could be anywhere. Like I said, leave it in God’s hands. If it happens, it happens.”
He went on to say that he’s very proud of his family and recalled Wrestlemania 39 being one of the exciting moments seeing the Usos, Solo Sikoa and Roman Reigns all part of the night.
Intergender Wrestling
At Wrestling Revolver on November 16, 2023 in Los Angeles, California, Fatu wrestled his first ever intergender match against Masha Slamovich.
When I asked Fatu his thoughts on intergender wrestling being a controversial topic, Fatu said that “first and foremost, women make the world go round.”
“I got seven kids. I got girls. And my girls are the toughest right. And not only that, but for real when it comes to matches like that, it’s like, the girls are on the road just as much as I am. You know, we’re all in the same boat so it ain’t nothing but respect.
They feeding their family, taking care of {things} like they know the ins and outs. So but not only that, like, it’s not just a random person. We talk about my son, you know, so absolutely it felt good. It was good opportunity. But to be in there, I was very, very excited today for my first inter-gender match. And it was good.”
Fatu then gave credit to Slamovich for being able to build a platform for herself and said he had “goosebumps” following the match and that the match felt good.
While WWE Fastlane might not look the strongest on paper, it could end up being a solidly decent pay-per-view/premium live event.
WWE has both a Saudi Arabia event and Survivor Series next month, so anything big the company has planned is going to be saved for one of those two shows. Fastlane is definitely a B-level PPV, but there will be some good matches and likely some significant storyline developments as well.
Whatever happens with John Cena Saturday should be interesting. It feels likely that he will be at Crown Jewel on November 4th, so what happens on Saturday could build to his match on that show.
It’s also possible that we see someone win their first World title in WWE on Saturday. While Shinsuke Nakamura might not be the favorite to win his match with Seth Rollins, it’s also not impossible he walks away with the belt. “It could happen” seems an accurate way to describe his chances.
Fastlane will likely set the stage for Survivor Series as well. As far as anyone knows, WarGames is coming back again this year and it appears WWE has been building an angle for the men’s match in recent weeks. A Judgment Day team featuring Finn Balor, Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio & JD McDonagh vs. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso is the likely direction and a significant chapter in that story could be written Saturday.
Here’s a preview, predictions and some odds for Saturday’s event from Indianapolis, Indiana:
WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins (-500 favorite) defends against Shinsuke Nakamura in a Last Man Standing match
It’s unlikely that Nakamura beats Rollins to win the title, but it could happen. The oddsmakers aren’t ruling him out, and he’s not even the biggest underdog of the night.
It feels early for Rollins to drop the title, but he could lose the belt to Nakamura only to regain it at Crown Jewel, Survivor Series, or even just on a Monday night when WWE really wants to pull in a good rating.
Several factors will impact whether or not Nakamura wins the belt here. The first and foremost of those is whether it’s Vince McMahon or Triple H booking the show as it’s tough to get a handle on who really has the final say right now. It feels like the shows are mostly Paul Levesque, but with a little Vince sprinkled on top from time to time.
Another factor is what the long-term plan is for the angle that Rollins has been wrestling through a significant back injury. It could be to allow him to lose the title to Nakamura while “fighting valiantly against the odds” thus keeping him strong. Another possibility is this is the start of a larger story where the physical toll of being a fighting champion continues to wear him down. This would be similar to Orange Cassidy’s run with the AEW International title where he gradually got more beat up with every title defense.
I’m not going to go as far as to say I think Nakamura is going to win. It’s still more likely that Rollins retains. Stranger things have happened, though. Nakamura’s definitely got a chance.
Prediction: Rollins
John Cena & LA Knight (-5000 favorites) vs. Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa
To put this in perspective, the betting world feels Cena and Knight are 10 times more likely to beat Uso and Sikoa than Rollins is to beat Nakamura. I don’t know if that’s more of a comment on Nakamura having a chance to win the title or The Bloodline not having any chance at all, however.
Everything here is lined up for a feel-good babyface win. WWE is not going to have Cena get pinned when he’ll likely have a big match in Saudi Arabia next month. It would also be a pretty questionable call to have Knight eat a pin or submit right now. Meanwhile, Uso and Sikoa not seeing eye-to-eye and it costing them the match fits snuggly with their storyline.
The real interesting part of this match will be how the Bloodline story advances. The result is not in question.
Prediction: Cena & Knight
WWE Women’s Champion IYO SKY (-300 favorite) defends against Charlotte Flair (+400) and Asuka (+400) in a three-way
Flair is never without a title for long and I imagine she’s going to walk away from Fastlane as the champion. If she does, it will be her 15th world title win, inching her closer to both her father and Cena.
WWE is all about monumental achievements and historical championship runs at the moment. With Gunther, The Usos, and Roman Reigns, the story has been about historically long reigns. With Flair, it’s about chasing the total number of times she’s won the belt. This, of course, makes no sense from a sporting perspective but it’s a stat WWE has traditionally said is important.
The logical question is why would a champion be rewarded for frequently losing a title rather than having a lengthy reign consisting of many successful defenses? Regardless, WWE believes this to be an important statistic, and putting the title back on Flair as soon as possible allows them to play it up as something special.
Prediction: Flair wins the title
LWO (Rey Mysterio, Santos Escobar & a mystery partner) vs. Bobby Lashley & The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) (-1000 favorites)
On the surface, a win for Lashley and the Street Profits seems a lock here. After all, it’s a new faction that WWE will want to build up by winning their first big match together, right?
I’m not so sure what the direction is for Ford and Dawkins with Lashley. I’m also worried WWE doesn’t really know either.
They’ve already teased that Ford and Dawkins won’t go to the dirty underhanded lengths Lashley will to get a win. I wouldn’t be shocked if Ford and Dawkins don’t end up staying in this group and are possibly replaced by some other guys who align with Lashley. I’m not sure trying to turn the Street Profits heel was an altogether great idea as it doesn’t feel like the fans want to cheer against them.
I don’t see Lashley and the Profits winning as the slam dunk the oddsmakers do, but I do think they’ll likely win. Still, I feel it’s more likely that Ford and Dawkins end up feuding against Lashley in the long run than staying aligned with him.
WWE Undisputed Tag Team Champions The Judgment Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest) (-300 favorites) defend against Cody Rhodes & Jey Uso
This match could go either way, but I think it’s more likely Priest and Balor retain the titles.
There have been teases that Judgment Day is a little unstable right now but I’m not expecting anyone to leave the group or there to be any type of split until, at least, after Survivor Series.
The real fun part about this will be how it potentially builds to WarGames. Last year’s men’s match was pretty fun and it’ll be interesting to see what Triple H has planned for this year. It feels like Judgment Day will play a similar role in the double ring cage match to what The Bloodline did last year. This is assuming he has creative control at the moment, of course, and that WarGames is being brought back this year.
I’m expecting Balor and Priest to retain, probably with some help from JD McDonagh, which would then motivate Priest to finally accept him into the group officially.
The Bloodline storyline continued further on Friday’s SmackDown.
After Jey Uso got the upper hand against the Bloodline, Jey then laid out his brother Jimmy. Facing the camera, Jey said he was done with the Bloodline, was done with SmackDown, and done with WWE. He then exited through the crowd to end the show.
Jimmy confronted Roman Reigns in the main event of Friday’s SmackDown. Before he could explain why he attacked his twin brother at SummerSlam, Jey arrived and demanded an explanation. Jimmy explained that he prevented Jey from winning because he didn’t want Jey to become the tribal chief, saying that Jey would become just as corrupt as Reigns if he attained that kind of power. Jey turned his back on his brother, causing Jimmy to eventually exit the ring. After Jimmy laid out both Reigns and Solo Sikoa, he motioned Jimmy to come to him. Jimmy did, but was soon met with a superkick by Jey.
At SummerSlam last weekend, Jey hit a splash on Reigns and was about to pin him when Jimmy dragged Jey out of the ring, laying him out with a superkick and allowing Reigns to pick up the victory. The two had spent their entire career in the WWE as a tag team until last Saturday.
On a new edition of Wrestling Weekly, Les Thatcher and I go over some of the excellence in both AEW and WWE over the past seven days…and a couple of lowlights as well.
We also discuss Kenny Omega’s thoughts on criticism of his match with Will Ospreay, the updated rules of combat in AEW, and Les’ induction into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame which happens next week.
The Bloodline angle and trial of Roman Reigns set what is believed to be a first in the 75 or so years that pro wrestling has been on television with the 7/7 show from Madison Square Garden.
This is believed to be the first week in history that the No. 1 show for the week in English network television was a pro wrestling show. There have been many weeks where cable’s top show is a wrestling show dating back to the infancy of cable and oftentimes outside of football season for Raw. Smackdown nearly did this one week ago, but a NASCAR race beat it 0.71 to 0.70.
Last week’s SmackDown rating is the latest indication that WWE is hot right now.
The show on Friday’s second quarter, which featured the trial of Roman Reigns, did 3,070,000 viewers and a 0.94 in 18-49. Both Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer on Tuesday morning’s Wrestling Observer Radio said that the number was huge.
“That is a gigantic, gigantic number,” Alvarez said.
“It’s beyond gigantic,” Meltzer said. “I don’t know how long you gotta go back to see a quarter like that.”
Meltzer noted that between Monday and Friday of last week, SmackDown was the most watched television show on network television, something that has never happened. Although it remains to be seen if it will be the most watched show overall for the week, the ranking is still historical.
“I don’t know if there has ever been a week where a wrestling show was number one for an entire week,” Meltzer said.
“Number one on network TV…when Hogan and Andre wrestled [On Saturday Night’s Main Event in 1988], that week, they were number 33,” Meltzer added. “That just gives you a perspective…I don’t think even in the Gorgeous George days they were number one.”
Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer is back with tons to talk about including the death of the Phantom of the Ring, the gigantic Smackdown numbers and how the Bloodline storyline has turned the company around, AEW and NXT previews, Smackdown and Collision notes, RAW report, and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
Timestamps:
Start: Ed Garea passes away
11:40: WWE SmackDown’s rating on Friday, AEW Rampage rating
26:57: WWE SmackDown and AEW Rampage thoughts, AEW All In ticket sales update
38:18: WWE NXT & AEW Dynamite recap, new women’s wrestling promotion
43:35: WWE Raw report
1:02:30: Story of Ric Flair/Lex Luger finish at Great American Bash 1988
On a brand-new Wrestling Weekly, Les Thatcher and I discuss the end (maybe?) of The Bloodline in WWE, a big debut for AEW Collision and give our predictions and preview for this weekend’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door this Sunday.
It’s a brand new We’re Live, Pal! with myself and Andrew Zarian.
We open up the show talking about CM Punk and last Saturday’s AEW Collision debut. We also wonder if the two shows will split the overall AEW audience based on who is on each show.
We then discussed last Friday’s WWE SmackDown angle where The Bloodline exploded and what happens next.
Lastly, we previewed Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite and this Sunday’s AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2.
Wrestling Observer Live with Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive is back with tons to talk about including a weekend catch-up on AEW Collision and Smackdown, a look at this week’s Dynamite leading to Forbidden Door, the RAW report from Monday and what was massively different this week, and more. A fun show as always so check it out~!
The end of SmackDown on Friday saw Jey lay out Roman Reigns with a superkick, ultimately deciding to leave The Bloodline. Solo Sikoa went for the attack, but was laid out by both Usos. The end of SmackDown saw Roman Reigns attempt to recover, only for The Usos to lay out Reigns with a double superkick.
Earlier in the show, Jey reiterated to Paul Heyman that he would only remain in The Bloodline if Heyman was out. In the final segment of the show, Reigns told Jey that he didn’t get to pick the wise man. He told Jey that when he was chosen as Reigns’ right hand man, Jimmy was the only one that had doubts about it. Jey asked Jimmy if that was true, and Jimmy said it was. Jey confronted his brother, ultimately telling Jimmy that he was out of The Bloodline. But Jey then said he was out as well, superkicking Reigns.
Jimmy Uso was kicked out of The Bloodline earlier this month after Solo Sikoa decided to stick with Reigns, turning on his brother Jimmy. The last several weeks had focused on Jey Uso needing to make the decision between staying in The Bloodline or joining his twin brother Jimmy.
