Jey Uso will choose sides on Friday’s WWE SmackDown as the collapse of The Bloodline continues to play out.
As announced by Paul Heyman in a backstage segment on Monday’s Raw, Jey Uso will choose between his twin brother Jimmy and his brother Solo on SmackDown.
Heyman revealed that Jey will make his “historic choice” on Friday, a week after Solo gave Jimmy a Samoan Spike as ordered by Roman Reigns as the fallout from Night of Champions continued.
Reigns and Solo challenged Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship at Night of Champions, losing after The Usos got involved. Jimmy turned on Reigns during the match, hitting The Bloodline’s leader with two superkicks.
On last week’s SmackDown, a ceremony was held to celebrate Reigns’s 1000-plus day Universal title reign. Jimmy attempted to reconcile with Reigns, but Reigns ordered an attack from Solo. Reigns, Solo, and Heyman left the ring together as Jey remained in the ring with Jimmy as the show closed.
Based on what we saw at Saturday’s WWE Night of Champions, the end of tThe Bloodline may be near.
Or, at least, they are making progress towards that.
Jimmy Uso was the latest to turn on undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns, superkicking him after Reigns pie faced him during Reigns & Solo Sikoa’s challenge of WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn.
The Usos had accidentally superkicked Sikoa after saving Reigns from Owens who was about to put Reigns through a table. Jey Uso was shocked by Jimmy Uso’s actions, but eventually left with his brother as Sikoa was pinned by Zayn. The show ended with the champions heckling Reigns, who sulked to the back.
The turn capped off what ended up being a pretty good show with everything delivering in terms of in-ring work. The main event in itself was probably the best match on the show in terms of drama. It’s good that The Bloodline storyline is finally going somewhere after weeks of teasing dissension.
What’s most interesting is that it’s playing into the longer storyline of Reigns and Cody Rhodes as Rhodes told Reigns that The Bloodline would fracture once he won the undisputed WWE Universal title. Even with Rhodes’ loss, it looks like that is happening regardless.
**********
Seth Rollins did capture the WWE World Heavyweight title, the bronze medal in WWE, after pinning AJ Styles. While it was a good match, perhaps very good, I don’t know if it was a great match. It was your usual classic main-event style WWE match with a strong emphasis on near falls and finishers.
I’m not sure what’s next for Rollins as I don’t feel like he’s in the position of being the strongest character on the brand (that goes to either Owens & Zayn or Rhodes). Maybe if they bring Drew McIntyre back as a heel, that may be another long-term storyline that could work.
**********
Rhodes lost his rematch against Brock Lesnar, passing out after a second kimura attempt after valiantly fighting the first. This was short, but fast-paced and also dramatic. Despite losing, they gave Rhodes a ton, using his titanium cast to give him an advantage despite “being injured.” Some people were upset by this loss, but unlike WrestleMania, I can see why they did this as they are building to a third match, perhaps either next month in London or at SummerSlam. Don’t fret, folks: the story continues and will for a long, long while.
**********
Asuka won the WWE Raw Women’s championship, defeating Bianca Belair in another good match. I think the most interesting part of this match is Belair losing the title, which she had held since last year’s SummerSlam. They had already gotten the line out that she was the longest-reigning Women’s champion of the modern era, so once she hit that, the title run became endangered. I don’t think this is the end of the feud, but we’ll see.
Rhea Ripley destroyed Natalya in seconds to retain the WWE SmackDown Women’s title. There’s not much to say about this as my best guess is a longer rematch, either on TV or the next pay-per-view.
Becky Lynch and Trish Stratus had their first-ever match….and it was good! Stratus can still have a good match at this point in her career and it helps a lot that she had this match with Lynch. The finish saw Stratus win after Zoey Stark attacked Lynch, allowing Stratus to hit the Stratusfaction. So, there’s clearly an alliance there and this feud must continue, which seems to the the theme from this show. We’ll likely see the blowoff at SummerSlam as the rumors had it a month or so ago.
WWE Intercontinental Gunther defeated Mustafa Ali. That was a given and for what they were given, it was fine. To me, it’s just weird WWE has a lot of these matches where someone lucks into a title match, then they go out of their way to tell you that these people have no chance of winning. They did it last month with Zelina Vega and now this. This was fine, but not to the level of recent high-profile Gunther matches.
**********
These shows are always going to be against the backdrop of WWE working with a country with flagrant human rights abuses that many people seem to look the other way on because of money and sports. It’s kinda hard to ignore when during every other segment, Michael Cole put over the rich history of Jeddah, which if you didn’t know, is also a modern cosmopolitan city. I do know this now because it was mentioned multiple times throughout this show.
Keep in mind this was the same country that tortured and imprisoned women as recently as 2018 for driving, and women wrestlers were not allowed to appear on the shows until two years into their deal. Not exactly cosmopolitan.
With that said, the wrestling on the show was good, even great at times, and the crowd was generally hot for everything at all the right moments. WWE television is middling at most, but to their credit their premium live events, or whatever you want to call them, have usually delivered, as was the case with Night of Champions.
The final SmackDown before Night of Champions ended with Roman Reigns standing tall with the WWE Tag Team title belts.
Though cracks within The Bloodline only continue to get deeper, they got the better of a brawl with Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn to close last night’s show. Jey Uso handed over Owens & Zayn’s title belts so Reigns could pose with them ahead of Night of Champions.
Reigns & Solo Sikoa were supposed to be guests on The KO Show last night, but The Usos ended up appearing instead. Owens tried to talk sense into The Usos and convince them to break away from Reigns. When Jimmy Uso called himself the “Tribal Chief,” Reigns made his way out to the ring and stared his cousins down.
Zayn told Reigns that The Bloodline is collapsing — and it’s all Reigns’ fault. Owens then dropped Reigns with a stunner.
The Bloodline were able to get the advantage in the brawl after Sikoa got involved. Jey gave one set of Tag Team title belts to Sikoa. Reigns then wanted the other set of belts. Jimmy hesitated to hand them over until Jey grabbed the belts and gave them to Reigns.
Reigns & Sikoa are challenging Owens & Zayn for the titles at Saturday’s Night of Champions pay-per-view in Saudi Arabia.
Cody Rhodes is continuing his story, but will it have a happy ending?
Rhodes did beat Brock Lesnar in front of a hot crowd in San Juan, Puerto Rico at Saturday’s Backlash. It was an effective, explosive back and forth main event, perhaps best known for the spot towards the end of the match where Lesnar hit his forehead on an exposed turnbuckle and proceeded to bleed buckets.
Unlike at WrestleMania when the Hell in a Cell match had to be stopped so Finn Balor could be stapled up, Lesnar continued the match as a bloody mess (probably because no one is going to tell Lesnar what to do) until the finish when Rhodes pinned Lesnar’s shoulders on the mat while Lesnar had the kimura locked in.
With the World Heavyweight title tournament set to become the major story over the next few weeks, it only makes sense that Rhodes is an early favorite. For whatever reason, I don’t feel like this is the end of Lesnar at the moment, especially when there’s a Saudi Arabia payday incoming later this month. I could see Rhodes winning the Raw portion of the tournament and Lesnar winning the SmackDown portion of the tournament, leading to a rematch at Saudi Arabia later this month.
The question if that happens: will Lesnar do two jobs in a row?
Rhodes and Lesnar headlined this year’s Backlash, but after watching the show it was clear that the main event should have been Bad Bunny and Damian Priest’s San Juan street fight.
This was a fun match and better than most of WWE’s weapon matches lately. Bunny came out and instantly felt like one of the hottest acts in pro wrestling. It was something special. The crowd, who was the real story of this show, was super hot for everything. It might have gone on a little too long, but the cameos of Savio Vega and Carlito towards the end were fun and I have no real complaints other than Bunny nearly spiking his head on a sliced bread spot.
Still, he’s gotten pro wrestling down pat, and it’s quite amazing how talented he and Logan Paul are at picking up pro wrestling this rapidly.
On the undercard, The Bloodline managed to defeat Matt Riddle, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in what looks like the final blow-off match between the six.
Although I guess as undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions, Zayn and Owens could still appear on the other brand.
This had to follow the street fight and while it was a perfectly fine match, it felt way too long at 22 minutes especially after having just gone through a 25-minute match. The main story of the match was the dysfunction between The Usos and Solo Sikoa. The question now is if they will manage to make up or if it’s the start of The Bloodline crumbling like Rhodes predicted a few months ago.
Austin Theory retained the United States title over Bobby Lashley and Bronson Reed.
It was fine with every single triple threat trope you’ve ever seen in WWE, including the finish. Let me know if you’ve seen this finish before: participant one hits participant two with their finish. Participant three, a heel, then throws participant one out of the ring and covers participant two for the win. Very predictable. The Theory run is doing nothing for me still.
Rhea Ripley defeated Zelina Vega to retain the SmackDown Women’s title as expected.
Vega got a tremendous response in Puerto Rico to the point of being moved to tears. The match was alright, but the story was more about the hot crowd as opposed to the match. The Raw Women’s title match that opened the show was far better with Bianca Belair defeating IYO SKY to retain. In terms of overall wrestling, it was probably the best match on the show. They have been teasing off and on for months that Damage CTRL may be in the midst of splitting up, and based on the commentary during this match and the finish (Damage CTRL attempting to interfere but fail), it seems like the group is heading in that direction again after weeks of start and stop teases.
Seth Rollins and Omos had a fine match.
Rollins, despite the goofy gimmick that has never really fit him, is one of the best wrestlers in WWE so it makes sense that he and Omos had a better than expected match. This seemed to be a way of getting Rollins a big win ahead of the World Heavyweight Championship tournament and it seems clear that he will be in the tournament in some form or fashion, and could even be a favorite if Rhodes is not in it.
Backlash was a real fun show coming off of two strong WrestleMania events.
WWE is on a roll with their pay-per-view shows and we only have to wait a few more weeks until Night of Champions on May 28. Let’s see if Rhodes will finish the story there…or SummerSlam…or maybe they’ll hold off until WrestleMania 40.
Or, maybe he’ll form the Allied Powers with the British Bulldog and feud with Tatanka. We’ll see.
A new six-man tag team match has been added to Backlash.
New Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn will team with Matt Riddle to take on The Usos and Solo Sikoa.
The Usos, Owens, and Zayn have continued their feud following WrestleMania, with Paul Heyman indicating to The Usos that Roman Reigns hasn’t been happy with them following their loss. Riddle made his return to WWE on the Raw following WrestleMania, and since then has set his sights on getting revenge against Solo Sikoa, who put him out of action late last year.
On Friday’s SmackDown, Riddle had the chance to take on Solo Sikoa in a singles match. Sikoa was able to put away Riddle with the samoan spike. After the match, Sikoa continued the attack on Riddle as The Usos and Zayn & Owens brawled around ringside. Sikoa delivered a uranage to Riddle on top of the table then pushed the table on top of him before Owens & Zayn could make the save.
Here is the card so far for Backlash in Puerto Rico on May 6:
The Usos & Solo Sikoa vs. Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and Matt Riddle
If Kevin Owens is going to be successful against The Bloodline, he’s going to need some help.
Owens tried to do things on his own when he faced Solo Sikoa in a street fight on Raw last night. But when the match spilled backstage, he was taken out by a double superkick from The Usos. Jimmy and Jey then dragged Owens back to the ring, where they gave him more superkicks. Sikoa hit the Samoan Spike on Owens and pinned him to get the victory.
Owens was interviewed earlier in the night and said he wanted to face The Bloodline on his own. With all of their history together, he doesn’t want to fight alongside Sami Zayn. Owens also told Cody Rhodes not to come out during the street fight. Owens said he wants Rhodes to focus on facing Roman Reigns at WrestleMania, and he doesn’t want to be the reason Rhodes isn’t able to accomplish his dream of becoming WWE world champion.
There were some new developments for WrestleMania 39 last night. It was confirmed that Edge will take on Finn Balor inside of Hell in a Cell at the event. Brock Lesnar and Omos went face-to-face ahead of their WrestleMania match. Dominik Mysterio challenged Rey Mysterio to face him at WrestleMania, but Rey is still refusing to fight his son.
A new segment today: “Down in the Valley”, going off on all of the depressing and annoying crap in pro wrestling this week like high ticket prices. Why do we put up with this, people tolerating ridiculous prices for “premium” or “platinum” tickets. It will just get worse.
What about Bray Wyatt? Are we sitting through another three months of pointless interviews and vignettes so he can introduce another person into his group? Get to the point, Bray. Plus some other rants, check it out.
Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer run down SmackDown.
Alvarez and Meltzer discussed the big storylines from SmackDown, primarily the angle between Sami Zayn, Jey Uso, and the rest of The Bloodline. You can watch their review in full below.
Alvarez recapped the major storyline from Friday’s show, which saw Paul Heyman ask Jimmy Uso to try and contact his brother. Jimmy was unable to do so and walked to the ring alone to defend the SmackDown Tag Team titles by himself. However, Jey arrived and the two ended up retaining their titles. After Jey told Jimmy backstage he was still conflicted, Jey met up with Sami Zayn, who told Jey that he shouldn’t go down with the ship and there’s a way out of this, saying he acknowledged him. The two fist bumped.
The end of the show saw Paul Heyman tell Jimmy Uso for him and his brother to stay away from the Elimination Chamber event next weekend.
The main event of Friday’s show saw Madcap Moss defeat Rey Mysterio, Karrion Kross, and Santos Escobar in a four-way match to determine the next challenger for Gunther’s Intercontinental title. The two will meet on next week’s show.
I am back for another episode of Wrestling Observer Live discussing the latest from this week in pro wrestling.
On Friday’s WWE SmackDown, the latest chapter of The Bloodline saga unfolded as Sami Zayn vs. undisputed Universal Champion Roman Reigns is now set for this month’s Elimination Chamber. Will the intrigue of this story overshadow Cody Rhodes and his title shot at WWE WrestleMania?
NXT Vengeance Day was this past Saturday — their first standalone event outside the PC in two years. Producer Matt and I give our thoughts on the card and what NXT is going to need to do to maintain its TV audience going forward.
Plus, we get to the passing of Lanny Poffo this past week, WWE’s quarterly and full year earnings, AEW preparing for a new TV deal/streaming service, and more.
Sami Zayn had to choose between Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens, and he chose Owens.
The end of Saturday’s Royal Rumble saw Roman Reigns successfully retaining the WWE Universal Championship against Kevin Owens. After the match, all of The Bloodline entered the ring and attacked Owens, eventually putting Owens in handcuffs on the ring ropes. Reigns, with a steel chair, was about to attack Owens when Zayn stopped him, telling Reigns that it was beneath him. Reigns gave the chair to Zayn and told him to attack Owens. When Zayn hesitated, Reigns got confrontational and again ordered him to attack Owens. Zayn eventually used the chair to attack Reigns.
Zayn apologized to Jey Uso, but Jimmy Uso quickly took out Zayn with a superkick. Both Jimmy and Solo Sikoa attacked Zayn, but when it was time for Jey to take action, he paused before eventually exiting the ring. Reigns continued to attack Zayn, taking a lei and spilling flowers on Zayn before The Bloodline made their exit.
Dissension between Zayn and Reigns had been growing in recent weeks, with Reigns holding a trial for Zayn on Monday’s Raw after Zayn hesitated attacking Owens on last Friday’s SmackDown. Thanks to testimony from Jey Uso, Reigns found Zayn not guilty, but ordered him to not appear on SmackDown. Despite that order, Zayn appeared on Friday’s SmackDown after Jey had called him after The Usos were thrown out of the building. Zayn got involved in the main event, preventing Sikoa from taking a loss against Owens.
Major creative plans involving The Bloodline have been changed for this coming Monday’s Raw.
WWE confirmed Saturday afternoon that a tribunal court for “the Trial of Sami Zayn” will take place this coming Monday on Raw is XXX.
BREAKING: After the events of last night’s #SmackDown, The Bloodline will hold a Tribal Court for the Trial of Sami Zayn this Monday at 8/7c on #RAWisXXX on @USA_Network!
PWInsider had reported earlier in the afternoon that plans for a Bloodline Acknowledgement Ceremony featuring members of the Anoa’i family had been dropped.
Friday’s SmackDown focused on the relationship between Zayn and Roman Reigns, with Reigns initially furious at Zayn for his reaction after The Usos interfered in his match against Kevin Owens without Zayn’s knowledge on Raw. The two eventually made up prior to the contract signing between Reigns and Owens for the Royal Rumble later that night.
At the contract signing, Owens ended up jumping Reigns from behind. When Zayn came out to make the save for Reigns and The Usos, he instead paused, with he and Owens having a staredown. Owens then escaped into the crowd as the show closed.
WWE Raw is XXX, Monday, January 23 —
WWE United States Champion Austin Theory defends against Bobby Lashley
Raw Tag Team Champions The Usos defend against The Judgment Day (Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio)
While The Bloodline stood tall at the end of last night’s SmackDown, tension within the group continues to build.
Sami Zayn faced off with Kevin Owens in the main event of last night’s show. While Zayn was looking to make things right with Roman Reigns by solving their Kevin Owens problem, he didn’t get the chance. The Usos and Solo Sikoa interrupted the match, attacking Owens and causing a disqualification.
Zayn was going for a Helluva Kick when The Usos and Sikoa attacked Owens. The beatdown included Sikoa giving Owens a splash through the announce table. Zayn looked confused about what was going on, but he posed with The Bloodline over a fallen Owens as SmackDown went off the air.
Paul Heyman had told Zayn earlier in the night that The Usos and Sikoa weren’t at the show and Reigns wanted Zayn to do things all by himself.
