WWE opened this week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown in South Carolina with Solo Sikoa leading his goons out to the ring to be greeted with loud “OTC” chants from the fine folks of Columbia. He still demanded they acknowledge him.
They did, but with boos and “Solo sucks” chants.
Still not our Tribal Chief.
Naturally, he pushed forward to say he’s the man who created a bigger, stronger family and improved The Bloodline. Roman Reigns and Jimmy Uso can do nothing about it too. He called out the latter’s attempts to recruit Jey.
No yeet.
He threatened to continue the beatdowns unless Reigns comes to the ring by the end of the night and acknowledges him.
And then Jey’s music hit.
Wade Barrett considered the possibility that he was here to acknowledge Sikoa. After all, why else would he show up like this after how he acted out against Jimmy attempting to recruit him on Monday Night Raw earlier this week?
Jey grabbed a microphone and said he’s not here to fight because he still cares about him. He just wanted to talk one-on-one, Uce-to-Uce. “Think about what you doing. Think about what you doing to the family. Think about what you doing to The Bloodline. Don’t nobody got bigger issues with Roman than I do. But dividing the family like this ain’t it.” He said he left, and went and became Intercontinental champion.
But you can’t take the Ula Fala. It’s earned, not taken. If he wants to take down Reigns and his power, go for it but don’t divide the family in the process.
Sikoa fired back to say he’s not his little brother, he’s the Tribal Chief now, and he’s trying to unite the family. All he has to do is acknowledge him.
“Are you in or are you out?”
He did not acknowledge Solo.
Instead, he called out Solo bringing in Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Jacob Fatu, saying there was a reason they never did so before and if Jacob wants to keep staring at him like that he could get his ass whooped right now. The pop for that was INSANE.
They’ve done a magnificent job of making Fatu in such a way that every potential match involving him feels like the biggest deal imaginable. That felt like the case here.
Jey left after saying the next time Solo sees him things will be different.
But whatever does that mean?!?
Later, Reigns and Jimmy pulled up to the arena and Jey met them there. He tried to walk away but Roman grabbed him by the arm to stop him to deliver a message.
“I’m proud of you. We all are.”
Jey came back with “man, no yeet” with what looked like nothing but pain in his eyes. They shared a moment but there’s a lot there that hasn’t been worked through.
“I told you,” Reigns said to Jimmy with disappointment.
Later still, Jimmy tried to appeal to Reigns to talk to Jey again but Roman rebuked him by saying we tried it his way. Now, they’re going to do it how he wants to do it. When asked how exactly he’s going to handle this, he said he’s going to acknowledge Solo.
Huh?!?
Finally, the time came and Reigns told the fans in the arena to acknowledge him “maybe for the last time.” This couldn’t be, right? There’s just no way, right?
“I heard that you told Jey that our family is stronger now. You told Jey that our bloodline was stronger now. I don’t see it. I don’t see anything that tells me we’re better off now. If anything, we’re divided and broken. After everything we’ve been through, everything we went through in the spring, everything that we lost through the summer, and we stand here divided like this? Solo, I told my father that I could fix this.”
Damn. That one hits.
“All I wanna do is put us back in the promised land. I want titles around our waist. I want paydays coming from the heavens. I want abundance. I want our family to be priority. Tell me what I have to do to fix this.”
Sikoa laughed right in his face.
“All you have to do is acknowledge me.”
The fans chanted “OTC” in response to that one.
And then Reigns said it.
“I acknowledge you. There. I acknowledge you. Does that make you feel better?”
But that’s not what Solo was after.
“That’s not good enough. I need you to acknowledge me as your Tribal Chief.
“Or else.”
Reigns was contemplative and then lost his cool, getting right in his face and yelling “OR ELSE WHAT?!?”
Solo called him out for it, recognizing the man Reigns has always been, saying he hasn’t changed — that looked like it hurt Roman to hear — and because of that, Sikoa isn’t changing either. A snap of the fingers and the rest of Solo’s Bloodline came out holding a beaten down Jimmy Uso. They did what you knew they were going to and overwhelmed Reigns. He was powerless even with Jimmy’s help — without it he was doomed.
The fans chanted “YEET” in the hopes that Jey would come to his aid.
No yeet.
The war is not over, not yet by a long shot, but Solo’s side won the battle on this night. Yet again, Jacob Fatu put the Ula Fala on Sikoa’s neck over a fallen Reigns.
WWE Champion Cody Rhodes hit the ring on this show with a tall task — sell the fans on his upcoming match against GUNTHER and why it should matter. He brought up past dream matches and the what ifs associated with them, like what if WCW’s Goldberg could have gone head on with WWE’s Stone Cold Steve Austin?
This is kind of like that!
There were times dream matches did come to fruition and the outcome was to protect folks and he more or less acknowledged that before saying there would be a definitive winner in this match. This felt like a way to reassure fans we’re actually going to get a clean winner in this thing.
Then, he brought up his family, that he’s doing this for his daughter and how it’s going to mean an awful lot to attach his name to this championship as the first man to hold it because that’s the same name he has given her. This matters. That’s the message.
I’ll let you decide if you feel the same.
He finished it off by inviting GUNTHER to show up next week to give his reasons for fighting for this title. There’s a part of me that hopes he just says “I’m champion, I have to” and that’s that.
Fair play to Rhodes for the attempt here but I’m still not sold on doing this match at all. It still feels entirely unnecessary.
All the rest
- WWE under Triple H finds its top contenders in multi-person matches, and they got that going again on this show in the form of two triple threat tag team matches to get to a top contender match to find who will challenge The Bloodline next. The first match-up ended in some controversy when DIY and The Street Profits pinned Pretty Deadly at the same time but the former were announced as the winners because Tommaso Ciampa pinned the legal man and Montez Ford did not. It was a creative finish to keep the Profits strong but maybe not so smart.
- Nia Jax was shown talking to Tiffany Stratton on the phone about her having caught the flu. SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis told Jax the previously scheduled tag team match against Bayley & Naomi would not be cancelled and instead she just needed a new tag partner. Candice LeRae showed up and said she was in, so Aldis booked it despite how unhappy Jax was about it. When the match came, Indi Hartwell got involved and helped LeRae score the pinfall to give the heels the victory. Nia looked unhappy about it. I don’t know what this does for the babyface team at all, and it seems clear it’s time for Bayley to move on to something else.
- Lash Legend was back on SmackDown this week, this time working a singles match against Piper Niven with the Women’s Tag Team Champions Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair watching from the crowd. They were promoting this like it was as much about setting up a future tag title match than a singles bout. Legend got to show off her strength and Jakara Jackson was right there to deal with Chelsea Green when she tried to interfere to give Legend an impressive victory. Barrett called it the biggest win of her short career.
- They actually went ahead and aired the video Kevin Owens put on social media. Then, Randy Orton told Nick Aldis he wants a match against him at Crown Jewel. Aldis wouldn’t book it, much to Orton’s chagrin. He finally revealed he wouldn’t because he was under orders from above that he could not. Orton pledged to go talk to the big wigs himself. I love everything about this angle and how they’ve handled it every step of the way.
- The second triple threat tag team match of the night featured A-Town Down Under, Los Garza, and none other than the debuting Motor City Machine Guns, who got a pretty damn good reaction from Columbia. There were multiple “Motor City” chants throughout the match and commentary put them over big, calling them technical wizards and geniuses of the ring. They did a lot of tandem offense, getting in more than anyone else in the match en route to pinning Berto to win. This was about as impressive as they could look in their first match with WWE.
- Andrade and Carmelo Hayes were about to be interviewed about their Game 7 matchup next week when Hayes stopped Byron Saxton from asking any questions and the two started brawling. They can’t be anywhere near each other without damn near a Pier 6 breaking out! Simple but effective. Later on, Aldis revealed U.S. Champion LA Knight would be special guest referee for their final match. He admitted he shouldn’t even be getting called in for this but he’s the man so he can do anything, even if that means smacking one or both of them “back to factory settings.” Love it.
Another good one from the blue brand.
Grade: B
Your turn.