Roman Reigns may need shocking alliance against WWE’s new Bloodline after Paul Heyman attack

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Paul Heyman’s haggard and disheveled body slamming through the announce table at Madison Square Garden was a curtain drop on this act as WWE has set up its Bloodline summer, where Roman Reigns could be forced into unlikely alliances.

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

Sikoa, like a Reigns wannabe, asked for acknowledgment from each member and the sacred Tribal Chief lei to be placed on him by Heyman.

The 58-year-old Heyman did exactly what he needed to do to turn into a true babyface for the first time and set up Reigns’ return after Sikoa lied to his face about Jacob Fatu. It’s also a signal that everything else Sikoa has said to him is a lie.

What WWE has done so well on the Bloodline story is create anticipation for big moments. The jarring visual of Heyman going through the table has Reigns set up to go from the most hated villain at WrestleMania 40 to beloved babyface, with possibly one of the biggest crowd reactions in wrestling history waiting for him, all without him being on TV.

What comes next feels clear in some respects. Reigns and Heyman must make amends to reassemble his side of the Bloodline. That means Jimmy Uso returning after being taken out by Sikoa’s crew, and healing deep wounds with Jey Uso and Sami Zayn. Who doesn’t love a redemption story?

Those are the easier alliances to make, but they could face even tougher challenges.

Unless Heyman is taken off TV for a few weeks, his only protection against the faux Bloodline is Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens.

That group eventually needs a fourth member to even up the numbers game against Sikoa, Fatu, Tonga Loa, and Tama Tonga. A returning Jimmy Uso makes the most sense with Zayn over on Raw. It would be the beginning of Rhodes and Owens swallowing their pride for the greater good.

If and when The Rock does return, Reigns should be set up to bring closure to a few of his career story threads as he will need a fifth person to team with his four-man Bloodline.

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

So what can WWE do to achieve that?

Tyrese Haliburton takes promo jab at Knicks after WWE confrontation with Jalen Brunson

Reigns should make amends with Rhodes and fight this war alongside him for the first time, with the Undisputed WWE champion likely in the throes of a feud with Rock.

The other option, but less likely because of how much meat is still on the bone, is adding Seth Rollins to the fight. It would force Reigns to confront his mortal weakness — his deep-rooted anger over Rollins’ betrayal of The Shield — that led to this mess in the first place.

It could allow him to enter the next stage of his career without that burden, but that seems better suited for a much longer program.

The possibilities are all there as WWE and Heyman masterfully set up the anticipation for Jimmy Uso and Reigns’ return. But it feels like there are some equally important moments bubbling under the surface that could mean just as much to the future of this story.

Forbidden Door, though not quite reaching the bar of its two predecessors (Grade: B+), did plenty of good for AEW on Sunday. Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay stamped their rivalry as something AEW can ride for a long time as the world champion proved his name should be with the best wrestlers in the world right now.

It remains to be seen if AEW is going to run this back so quickly and give Ospreay his finish-the-story moment at Wembley Stadium in August or run back Strickland vs. “Hangman” Page, who could also be the wild card in the Owen Hart Foundation tournament, or do Strickland vs. Bryan Danielson.

Ospreay feels ready for a clean break from the Don Callis family after refusing to use the screwdriver to beat Strickland and injure Prince Nana.

The women’s division is heading toward 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 after the reactions they received at UBS Arena on Sunday.

AEW was smart to not have a returning Britt Baker interrupt Mercedes Mone’s celebration without a face-to-face as there is plenty of time on their way to All In. Storm, who keeps turning in quality matches, will likely face Mariah May after she wins the Owen Hart tournament. I would’ve liked to have seen May been put in more situations where she was torn between Storm and May before the triple-kiss ending.

Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton have intense staredown in wild Smackdown scene at MSG

A few other important highlights were Hook going over clean on Chris Jericho with a poetic Judas Effect, Orange Cassidy remains in the dumps 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 by the Wrestling Observer that the plan is for him to finish his full-time career on the upswing.

Bron Breakker should beat Sami Zayn for the Intercontinental championship at Money in the Bank. Not doing so would unnecessarily cool the momentum you have built for him and he is clearly ready.

AEW desperately needs to turn up the heat on its Elite storyline going into Blood & Guts. Yes, Jack Perry knocking fan favorite Mark Briscoe off the ladder was fine, but there is no way he should have won that match clean. Briscoe is a solid candidate for his first feud.

The Judgment Day, as I wrote about last week, feels like it’s moving further toward split as Finn Balor and Damian Priest can’t get on the same page. It will be worth keep on eye on if WWE finds any new ways to advance Liv Morgan and Dominik Mysterio’s story. Her costing him the match against his dad doesn’t quite count because it’s Balor’s trust she’s earned already and not Mysterio’s.

Jay White absolutely roasting Christian Cage on Collision may be his best promo in AEW and leaves me intrigued to see these two interact going forward.,

Sometimes wrestling can bring us some unexpected pairings that just seem to work. Mark Briscoe and Kyle O’Reilly in a “conglomeration” feels like they could be just that.

After watching the final episode of “Who Killed WCW?”, I think Konnan had the best answer for what happened in blaming the Time Warner/AOL executives, as well as the company’s top guys for not interacting with the mid-carder to create new stars. It was important throughout the series for people to 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 is a little hard to fully believe Brad Siegel’s claim he did everything he could to try to save WCW after admitting that he wasn’t equipped to do so, because he wasn’t a wrestling guy.

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I’ve enjoyed the pairing of Saraya and Harley Cameron and the fact that Saraya has gotten a larger role lately. Their latest promo cracked me up a bit.

Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton being good sports created a perfectly laid-out moment that ended with the Knicks star bringing a steel chair in the ring to defend LA Knight from Haliburton and Logan Paul. There was tension the crowd ate up without a blow being thrown.

Congrats to Ash By Elegance, formerly 24/7 champion Dana Brooke in WWE, for capturing 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 have a big finish to the angle that just seems to be running in circles after Kross and AOP’s attack on Kofi Kingston.

Stephanie Vaquer, CMLL, New Japa n

The Chilean wrestler came into Forbidden Door season as a fairly unknown commodity to the U.S. and AEW audiences. But she made such an impression on Sunday that the fans were behind her by the end of the match and were upset she did not beat Mone, who was actually getting some cheer in the lead-up to the show.

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

This is a huge showcase for so many of the women as only Naomi and Iyo Sky have been main roster world champions. Tiffany Stratton and Lyra Valkyria are fairly new to Raw and SamckDown and Zoey Stark and Chelsea Green have mostly been tag team wrestlers in WWE. Someone’s career gets a huge rocket boost.

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