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Roman Reigns May Need Shocking Alliance Against WWE’s New Bloodline

Posted on by angelo

The Post’s Joseph Staszewski takes you through the world of professional wrestling in his weekly column, the Post Match Angle. (The post-match angle will return on July 16.)

Paul Heyman’s haggard, disheveled body crashing through the commentary table at Madison Square Garden marked the end of that act as WWE set up its Bloodline summer, where Roman Reigns could be forced into unlikely alliances.

The end of Friday’s SmackDown completed the transformation of Solo Sikoa’s group into a bootleg group, Bloodline — imposters, not successors to Reigns’ group.

Sikoa, as a Reigns aspirant, demanded recognition from each member and the sacred lei of the tribal chief to be placed on him by Heyman.

Paul Heyman did not recognize Solo Sikoa as his tribal leader. WWE

Heyman, 58, did exactly what he needed to do to turn himself into a true babyface for the first time and set up Reigns’ return after Sikoa lied to him about Jacob Fatu. It’s also a sign that everything else Sikoa has told him is a lie.

What WWE has done so well with the Bloodline storyline is build anticipation for big moments. The shocking image of Heyman going through the table allows Reigns to go from the most hated villain at WrestleMania 40 to the beloved babyface, with perhaps one of the greatest crowd reactions in wrestling history waiting for him, all without him being on television.

What comes next seems clear in some ways. Reigns and Heyman need to make amends to bring their side of the Bloodline back together. That means Jimmy Uso will return after being eliminated by Sikoa’s team, and heal deep wounds with Jey Uso and Sami Zayn. Who doesn’t love a redemption story?

These are easier alliances to make, but they could face even more difficult challenges.

Unless Heyman is taken off television for a few weeks, his only protection from the fake Bloodline is Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens.

This group ultimately needs a fourth member to even out the number of fights against Sikoa, Fatu, Tonga Loa, and Tama Tonga. Jimmy Uso’s return would make the most sense with Zayn on Raw. This would be the beginning of Rhodes and Owens swallowing their pride for the greater good.

If and when The Rock returns, Reigns should be ready to tie up some of the loose ends of his career, as he’ll need a fifth person to team up with his four-man Bloodline.

The easy family answer is Umaga’s son, Zilla Fatu, but he’s young, very early in his wrestling career and wouldn’t create a big moment.

So what can WWE do to achieve this?

Paul Heyman is introduced to the commentary table by Bloodline. WWE

Reigns is expected to reconcile with Rhodes and wage this war alongside him for the first time, with the undisputed WWE Champion likely embroiled in a feud with Rock.

The other option, but less likely due to the amount of flesh left on the bone, would be to add Seth Rollins to the fight. That would force Reigns to confront his mortal weakness — his deep-rooted anger at Rollins’ betrayal of The Shield — that led to this mess in the first place.

Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns will have to make a decision with their teams to face the new Bloodline. Getty Images

This might allow him to approach the next stage of his career without that burden, but it seems better suited to a much longer programme.

The possibilities are endless, with WWE and Heyman having masterfully set the stage for Jimmy Uso and Reigns’ return. But it seems there are equally important moments lurking beneath the surface that could be just as important to the future of this storyline.

Open doors

Forbidden Door, while not quite as good as its two predecessors (grade: B+), did AEW a lot of good on Sunday. Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay cemented their rivalry as something AEW can build on for a long time, with the world champion proving that his name should be among the best wrestlers in the world right now.

Will Ospreay and Swerve Strickland put on a show in the main event. Lee South/AEW

It remains to be seen whether AEW will spin this match as quickly and give Ospreay his final moment at Wembley Stadium in August or have Strickland go against “Hangman” Page, who could also be the wild card for the Owen Hart Foundation tournament, or have Strickland go against Bryan Danielson. Ospreay feels primed for a clean break with the Don Callis family after refusing to use the screwdriver to beat Strickland and injure Prince Nana.

The women’s division is heading into two huge matches and may have made two new crowd favorites in the process, as STARDOM’s Mina Shirakawa and CMLL’s Stephanie Vaquer are clearly over the moon after the reactions they received at UBS Arena on Sunday. AEW was smart not to let Britt Baker come back and interrupt Mercedes Mone’s celebration without a face-off since there’s plenty of time before they’re All In. Storm, who continues to put on quality matches, will likely face Mariah May after her Owen Hart tournament win. I would have liked to see May put in more situations where she was torn between Storm and May before the triple kiss ended.

Mercedes Mone is a meteor on Stephanie Vaquer. Lee South

Other highlights included Hook pulling off a poetic Judas Effect on Chris Jericho, Orange Cassidy remaining in trouble after a loss to Zack Sabre Jr., and Danielson getting his first pay-per-view win of the year in a banger against Shingo Takagi after a report from the Wrestling Observer that the plan is for him to finish his full-time career in top form.

The count of 10

Bron Breakker should beat Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental Title at Money in the Bank. Failure to do so would unnecessarily slow down the momentum you have built for him and he is clearly ready.

AEW absolutely needs to push their Elite storyline ahead of Blood & Guts. Yes, Jack Perry knocking fan favorite Mark Briscoe out of the rankings was nice, but there’s no way he would have won that match cleanly. Briscoe is a solid candidate for his first feud.

Jack Perry is the new TNT Champion. Lee South/AEW

Judgment Day, as I wrote last week, seems to be heading towards a breakup as Finn Balor and Damian Priest can’t seem to get along. It’s worth watching closely to see if WWE finds new ways to move the Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio story forward. The fact that she cost him the match against his father doesn’t really matter, as it’s Balor’s trust she’s already earned, not Mysterio’s.

Jay White absolutely roasting Christian Cage on Collision is perhaps his best promo in AEW and leaves me intrigued to see these two interact in the future.

Sometimes wrestling can bring us unexpected duos that seem to work. Mark Briscoe and Kyle O’Reilly in a “conglomerate” seems like it could be just that.

After watching the finale of “Who Killed WCW?”, I think Konnan had the best response to what happened by blaming the Time Warner/AOL executives, as well as the company’s executives, for not interacting with the mid-carder to create new stars. It was important throughout the show that people see the effect the Time Warner/AOL merger had on the fate of WCW and I don’t know if it’s just me, but it’s a little hard to fully believe Brad Siegel’s claim that he did everything he could to try to save WCW after admitting he wasn’t equipped to do so because he wasn’t a wrestler.

I enjoyed the Saraya and Harley Cameron duo and the fact that Saraya has gotten a bigger role lately. Their latest promo It made me laugh a little.

Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton, who were good sports, created a perfectly staged moment that ended with the Knicks star bringing a steel chair into the ring to defend LA Knight against Haliburton and Logan Paul. There was a tension that the crowd swallowed up without a single blow being thrown.

Congratulations to Ash By Elegance, formerly WWE 24/7 Champion Dana Brooke, for winning the first women’s championship of her career by winning a fatal four-way match to become the World Series of Wrestling Women’s Champion on Sunday.

No matter what WWE tries, Karrion Kross is going to feel like a heel jobber – which he is better than – especially after his loss to Xavier Woods. WWE better finish off the angle that seems to be going in circles after Kross and AOP’s attack on Kofi Kingston with a bang.

Wrestler of the week

Stephanie Vaquer, CMLL, New Japannot

The Chilean wrestler came into the Forbidden Door season as an unknown to the American public and AEW. But she made such an impression on Sunday that fans were rooting for her at the end of the match and were disappointed that she didn’t beat Mone, who had actually been receiving some encouragement in the run-up to the show.

Social Media Post of the Week

Match to watch

Women’s Money in the Bank Match, Money in the Bank (Saturday, 8 p.m., Peacock)

This is a big showcase for a lot of women since only Naomi and Iyo Sky have been main event World Tag Team Champions. Tiffany Stratton and Lyra Valkyria are relatively new to Raw and SamckDown and Zoey Stark and Chelsea Green have been primarily tag team wrestlers in WWE. Someone’s career is going to get a huge boost.