The Phantom Rant: Oba Femi and Jacob Fatu are rockets ready to launch

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. It is I, the one and only “Phantom Lord” Joseph Davis and this is The Phantom Rant. As always I am coming to you from New York City and the big news so far is the farce that was Ronda Rousey’s return to MMA the other night on Netflix. CM Punk was in attendance for the fight (I wonder what TKO thought of him being at a rivals show). But people are throwing around the term “the fix was in” after Rousey won in 17 seconds with her trademark armbar. From a pro wrestling standpoint, this was a squash. Gina Carano showed up for her paycheck and did the j.o.b.

The rest of the card delivered though…especially the war between Mike Perry and Nate Diaz. In another life, Nate Diaz would have been an amazing professional wrestler. He got a nasty gash on his head during the fight an tapped over a 1.0 on the Muto scale. So if your a bloodsucking freak like me who loves a good crimson mask in the worlds of Gordon Solie…check out that fight. Okay, enough with the MMA talk. Someday they’ll admit it’s a worked shoot…but that day hasn’t come yet.

In the world of wrestling, no one stays retired forever. Well, Jack Brisco did…but he was a rare acceptation to the rule. This past week on RAW, the WWE got us good when it came time for the Oba Femi open challenge. We were expecting another squash from Oba. Instead we got a squash from BROCK LESNAR. It was totally unexpected and I thought it was awesome. Brock’s “retirement” last month at Wrestlemania was seemingly perfect. But we all know The Beast wasn’t going out like that.

The one thing I don’t like about this return is it’s so painfully clear we’re probably going to see Brock get his win back. “Okay Kid, I put you over at Mania…now it’s time to return the favor”. There’s nothing wrong with someone getting their win back per say…it’s just Oba is a sure fire hit. Everyone loves doing that damn strut when he’s walking to the ring. Oba losing back to Brock Lesnar so quickly would really hurt his momentum. As we know the WWE is notorious at killing guys momentum. It is called 50/50 booking. One week you win…the next I do….after that we’re back to square one.

I’d say that’s been the WWE’s biggest problem for what’s going on decades now. They start someone hot and they pour water all over it and cool them off. The WWE would be stupid to do that to Oba because Oba Femi is what Brock Lesnar was in 2002. The rocket is fueled up. It’s time for liftoff. Now he got the big win at Mania. That’s great. But this open challenge thing just was not working. Sure it’s fun to see Oba launch someone up into the sky, but we need something with substance to keep the rocket flying.

I’m thinking back to when Brock debuted in 2002 and he was just laying waste to everyone. Yeah, he was a heel with Paul Heyman…but that didn’t matter. People liked this ass kicker and he went from rookie phenom to World Champion pretty damn quickly. I want to see the same thing happen with Oba. He needs to dispatch Brock once again and put himself in a position to win the World Championship. I really don’t want to sit through another four years of Roman Reigns as World Champion.

Speaking of Roman Reigns, the WWE has another rocket wanting to take off and that’s Jacob Fatu. I thought that at Backlash, Jacob should have won the title outright. But since that didn’t happen we need to see him win the upcoming Tribal Combat match with Roman. Is it for the title or just acknowledgment of one’s Tribal chief? Well, I just looked it up and apparently it’s for both. Jacob needs to win this match because where do he go from here if he doesn’t? The WWE always backs themselves into corners like this with people.

Seriously, what is Jacob Fatu going to do if he loses the Tribal Combat match? He has to acknowledge Roman as his Tribal Chief and he’ll have lost another chance at the World Championship. This is why Roman should have lost the title at Backlash. Jacob is screwed if he loses this match. I can’t think of any scenario where he loses and it’s a good thing for him. So I hope for his sake we see Jacob Fatu win this Tribal Combat match.

Honestly, Jacob should have stayed on Smackdown. He could have went after Cody. I mean we all like seeing Cody get mauled…so why not give the people what they want. Instead for some reason they moved GUNTHER over to Smackdown to beat up Cody. Was Jacob Fatu vs. Cody Rhodes even ever considered for post Wrestlemania? I just hate when people are shifted around in the WWE for no reason what so ever. Jacob Fatu showing up on RAW felt so random. Luckily for them though, the feud with Roman has worked and it’s gotten Jacob over even more. They just need to do something right for once and have Jacob Fatu win.

Now as for why Gunther moved over to Smackdown, supposedly (and this is just speculation)…Gunther is supposed to face Brock Lesnar in Lesnar’s real last match in his hometown of Minneapolis at Summerslam. If Gunther wins the WWE Championship at Clash in Italy, I could see him defending against Brock at Summerslam. Lesnar is a “free agent” so he can go to any show in the WWE that he feels like.

How we’ll get Gunther vs. Brock…I don’t know. What I do know is Gunther should definitely win the WWE Championship. I would much rather see Homelander Rhodes have to work his way back up than him being at the top of the mountain.

So to circle back to my earlier points, we have two rockets ready for flight. Oba Femi and Jacob Fatu are primed and ready to go. If the WWE was smart, they would hit the launch button now.

On that note I am done for this week. I think next time around I’ll cover AEW just because it’s been so long since I have and this weekend they have their Double Or Nothing PPV live in Queens, New York. It looks like a really good card and AEW has been slowly but surely regaining their footing. AEW PPV’s always over deliver so I’m sure it should be fun to watch.

As always if you want to leave feedback you can do so below, on Twitter or email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com