After Jimmy Uso’s super kick dropped Roman Reigns to the mat, it brought to mind the image of Ray Liotta slamming his hand against the shower wall in “Goodfellas” after news of the Lufthansa heist it the radio.
AAHHHHHHH, JIMMMMMMYYY!!!!
Not since Jey Uso at the inception of The Bloodline story has any member of the Anoi’a dynasty struck Reigns in that way – costing him and Solo Sikoa their Undisputed Tag Team championship match at Night of Champions in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Saturday.
Reigns deserved it then from Jey and he deserves it from Jimmy now. His power-hungriness and insecurities, not Sami Zayn or Kevin Owens, are bringing his family and faction crumbling down around him.
It was a dramatic end to another strong WWE pay-per-view filled with booking surprises, new champions, and a path forward to Survivor SummerSlam.
Here are five takeaways from Night of Champions where the main event was more than good enough to cover a few flaws.
Reigned In
There was a ton of poetic justice and intrigue to the main event — a match in itself like so many Reigns does started methodically slow, included a ref bump, and ended in a dramatic flurry. Reigns rebounding to spear Owens after taking a Stunner was a highlight.
When Zayn and Owens in control of the match late and with the ref knocked out, The Usos arrived to help out their Bloodline brothers. And they were at the start, but they mistakenly super kicked brother Sikoa and Reigns got into Jey’s face about it — pushing him twice.
The Usos react after the main event of Night of Champions.WWEThis time it was Jimmy — who Reigns reminded on SmackDown how he used to whoop him as a kid — finally standing up for his brother. Instead of Jey giving into protect him — and he even told him he was doing what he should have done from the start. Jey tried to tell his brother we are better than that and can’t do that, but he did it the second time anyway in a release of frustration.
Jey had a look of disbelief on his face after Jimmy kicked Reigns not once, but twice. He knows the meaning and consequences. He looked like someone who wanted to find a way to make it right, but knew he couldn’t.
It allowed Zayn to pin Sikoa for the win and officially opened the intramural fighting portion of the Bloodline story with Reigns set to celebrate 1,000 days as champion next week on SmackDown. My guess is Jimmy may get a shot at Reigns or Sikoa at Money in the Bank before an epic tag match at SummerSlam.
Roman Reigns can only watch as Sami Zayn celebrates his win.WWEBumpy Rhodes
Cody Rhodes has to be some sort of super hero or metahuman, right? Wrestling Brock Lesnar with a (storyline) broken arm and never tapping out to a kamara lock on it — just passing out instead on the second attempt to end — seems like something John Cena or Hulk Hogan would have done. We even got the referee arm raise and Rhodes not letting it drop. We get it. Rhodes is tougher than your average person, it plays right in him being that as a champion down the road and the crowd was into it and behind him.
That being said, WWE doctor’s placing Rhodes’ broken left arm in a “titanium” cast felt counterproductive to the whole “arm-broken” angle. WWE is now helping and protecting Rhodes in a way that gave him a bit of an advantage in the match. He was able to strike Lesnar with it for the little offense he got in.
Brock Lesnar puts the kimura lock on Cody Rhodes.WWEI would have rather liked to see Rhodes be a tough human and use savvy and guile to fight Lesnar with one arm — even if it didn’t go well. This will now go to the rubber match as expected. How about Three Stages of Hell — like Triple H would do — at SummerSlam?
I’ll be Misting You
We should have seen this coming, but it was both stunning and a little anti-climactic in the process as Asuka ended Bianca Belair’s more than 400-day reign as Raw women’s champion. With Charlotte Flair still away from the company, WWE has few believable challengers for Belair. So extending the feud with Asuka makes sense. WWE obviously wanted to get Belair to the “longest reigning women’s champion of the modern area” milestone (if that even means anything), so didn’t beat her on the grander stage of WrestleMania.
Asuka is the new Raw women’s champion.WWEGive WWE credit, however, for a creative finish and solid match from Belair and Asuka. Belair had dodged the mist in their WrestleMania match. So this time she sprayed it on her hand and rubbed it in the champ’s eyes when she went for the K.O.D finisher. We will see Beliar deal with adversity for the first time in a long time — this may just not have been the way to present it.
New friend/foe
Zoey Stark came out as a big winner at Night of Champions without even wrestling in a match. That’s because the NXT call-up came from under the ring to interfere on behalf of Trish Stratus. She clocked Becky Lynch with her finisher and rolled her back in the ring so the legend could hit Stratusfaction for the victory in a match that lost a little luster after the early brawling. It was Stratus’ first singles win since her retirement match against Lita in 2006.
What this means for Stark is she has now been thrust into WWE’s most high-profile women’s storyline working with a Hall of Famer, a future one, and likely one more Hall of Famer. Stark’s inclusion should signal that Lita will be back to confront her bestie Stratus and possibly team with Lynch against the new duo.
Second Fiddle
With all the talk about the returning World Heavyweight championship being a secondary world title, Night of Champions did little to change that feeling — even if the right person won in Seth Rollins. It kicked off the show and Rollins and A.J. Styles delivered the level of match you’d expect. Rollins sold a knee injury well — which at least put a little doubt of him winning out there — until finally being able to hit The Stomp late to win. Rollins winning felt so matter of fact that him doing so feels like one of the lesser important things that happened on the show. He faces a long road ahead to truly elevate it. Given their history, Triple H putting the title on him was a nice touch.
Other Matches
Rhea Ripley over Natalya to retain the SmackDown women’s championship.
For Natayla’s sake, I hope this is leading to something because it was a waste of our time and disrespectful to the veteran. Hopefully, that’s the point. It was over in a flash as Dominik Mysterio distracted Nattie in the corner before the match started to turn this into a genuine squash. Natalya deserves better than this — on her birthday no less.
Gunther over Mustafa Ali to retain the Intercontinental championship
Remember that great match we all expected Gunther and Ali to have? It never quite materialized. The champ absolutely dominated Ali — who bumped well for him — early. After the challenger did manage a little bit of offense to get the crowd into it, he was quickly handled and defeated.
Biggest Winner: Zoey Stark
Biggest Loser: Natalya
Best Match: Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa vs. Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens
Predictions: 5-2
Grade: A-
