Tribal Combat was a swing and a miss – what’s next for The Bloodline?

Well, Summerslam has come and gone, and the next page of the Bloodline story has been turned after Roman Reigns defeated Jey Uso. In the finish, Jimmy Uso returned and cost his brother the match, turning heel and setting up a brother vs. brother feud with Jey. The match itself did not live up to expectations and there are those out there that believe that the Bloodline story has run its course and has “jumped the shark.” While I agree that the match was not as good as it should have been, I do not agree that the story has “jumped the shark” and needs to end yesterday.

We saw this movie already after WrestleMania. Fans were super mad that Cody didn’t beat Roman and questioned the booking of the story. Fans declared that the story was going to lose its heat and business would suffer. Neither of those declarations came true. Business is still booming for WWE and the next phase of the story led to the Bloodline breaking up. This led to a highly acclaimed tag team match at Money in the Bank where the Usos scored a huge win over Roman Reigns and Solo Sikoa. As for Cody Rhodes, he went to feud with Brock Lesnar that ended up being a fantastic feud with very good matches despite a clunky start on the Raw after Mania.

Tribal Combat was a swing and a miss. It happens. It’s not the end of the world. As long as Triple H finds a way to continue the story in a compelling way, then the story will be fine in the end. I know that I’m interested to see where the Bloodline story goes now that Jey has “quit” WWE. Ultimately, I believe he will return sometime before the Royal Rumble and start the build to a match with Jimmy at WrestleMania. Roman will likely face a new challenger soon until the inevitable split between him and Solo which could lead to a match at the Royal Rumble. Cody will likely win the Royal Rumble match again and the story will culminate with Roman FINALLY losing the championship to Cody at WrestleMania. Then Roman could return after some time off and potentially begin his babyface redemption which could lead to the reunion of The Bloodline as a babyface group. If it’s cool for the Elite story in AEW to go on since the debut of the company itself, then It’s perfectly fine for the Bloodline story to go on as long as new wrinkles are thrown in that keep the story interesting. So far, both AEW and WWE have done a good job in continuing both long-term storylines.

Speaking of the booking, sometimes things don’t always work the way they’re intended. Tribal Combat was okay for me, but it was too long and too slow. If they had shaved off fifteen minutes and went at a faster pace, then the match could have been incredible. Just because it didn’t go down that way, that doesn’t mean that the whole story needs to be thrown in the trash now. A few months ago, MJFs title reign hit a speedbump with the crappy buildup to the Pillars 4-Way match at Double or Nothing. The match was great, but the buildup didn’t work at all. After the Pay-Per-View, MJF moved right into the Adam Cole storyline which has been the best story AEW has been running this summer. Sometimes you just need to pivot and AEW did just that, reinvigorating MJFs title reign in the process. I trust Triple H to do the same for the Bloodline story.

Remember, we the fans demanded long-term storylines for years and years. Now we’re getting them, so it’s hypocritical to be demanding the end of an incredible storyline just because one match didn’t live up to expectations. Not everything in the NWO worked, it’s still one of the best stories ever. Not everything worked in Austin vs. McMahon, but it’s still one of the greatest feuds of all time. Sometimes you try something, and it doesn’t click. That’s life. That’s wrestling. Let’s see where the story goes next.