On April 8’s Friday Night SmackDown, the newly coronated WWE Undisputed Champion Roman Reigns tasked his cousins, and Bloodline stablemates, The Usos with a new mission, following his victory over Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 38. Reigns wishes for Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso, the current SmackDown Tag Team Champions, to venture to Monday Night Raw and claim the Raw Tag Team Championship, thus unifying the titles. The move suggests WWE is continuing to pivot toward tentatively ending the split between its two cornerstone brands, as well as more glory for the rapidly ascendant Bloodline stable.
The Bloodline in WWE: What’s Next?
The Road to the Undisputed Championship
When Reigns returned to WWE in 2020, his new persona, “The Tribal Chief” rapidly took off in popularity. The villainous heel character showed gravitas and depth that Reigns had been lacking before. Upon claiming the Universal Championship, his desperation and ruthlessness to hold onto it could easily be tied back to a need for validation that he’d lacked, given his very real love/hate relationship with WWE’s audiences. This secretly insecure, vicious Reigns tore through a swath of challengers throughout WWE’s latter 2020-2021 pay-per-view cycles: Kevin Owens, Bryan Danielson, Edge, Finn Balor, and John Cena, until being confronted by Lesnar after the close of his SummerSlam 2021 match against Cena. Lesnar, the man Reigns had yet to be victorious against on the “Grandest Stage of Them All”, WrestleMania played the role of Reign’s final boss with relish. Reigns eventually defeated Lesnar at WrestleMania 38, unifying his own Universal title with Lesnar’s WWE championship into the WWE Undisputed Championship.
WWE Breaking Brand Barriers
Now, with The Usos poised to invade Raw in their quest to take the “red brand”’s tag titles, it seems WWE has plans to create a unified tag team championship, as well. The Usos last crossed over to Raw on March 28, when they lost to Raw Tag Team Champions RK-Bro via disqualification thanks to interference from the Street Profits. The Usos’ SmackDown brandmates Rick Boogs and Shinsuke Nakamura also got involved. Segments such as this, with SmackDown and Raw stars crossing paths, seem to indicate WWE is leaning towards a de facto end to the brand split, with a modus operandi similar to All Elite Wrestling: by and large, the same stars cross over freely between the brand’s Dynamite and Rampage flagship shows. This creates yet more possibilities for the Bloodline to expand.
Next Stop, NXT?
While Raw and SmackDown’s rosters have had more interactions throughout latter 2021 and 2022 so far, so too have the main roster and NXT 2.0. Dolph Ziggler enjoyed a run as the NXT Champion. Tommaso Ciampa and Bron Breakker also made appearances on Raw. The Usos’ younger brother, Solo Sikoa, currently appears on NXT. The possibility exists that Sikoa might join his relatives’ quest to commandeer WWE’s titles, perhaps pursuing the NXT Championship to augment the Bloodlines’ glory.
The Women’s Division
Speculation that Naomi, current WWE Women’s Tag team Champion alongside Sasha Banks and wife of Jimmy Uso, might somehow participate in the Bloodline storyline, has been floated in the past. After cries of outrage at Naomi’s booking in short and gimmicky matches, her fortunes changed with a well received feud with Sonya Deville, and a WrestleMania 38 victory, capturing the women’s tag titles, with Banks, from Carmella and Queen Zelina. Naomi’s profile has risen. An alliance with the Bloodline would necessitate a heel turn for the consistently popular babyface, but her vocal and loyal fans would probably cheer her on nonetheless.
The Bloodline in WWE – In Conclusion
With the Usos’ pursuit of the Raw tag team titles, the domination of the Bloodline, and WWE’s relaxing of the brand split, are both set to continue, creating intriguing possibilities for future storylines.
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