When it comes to the road to WrestleMania, you never know just who might show up at any given moment. On Monday, the final Raw before the Show of Shows aired, and it featured surprise appearances from a handful of SmackDown superstars. The last stop before WrestleMania is on Friday, but for Jade Cargill and the MFT, Monday provided a short, albeit largely unnecessary pitstop before their final destination.
SmackDown Wrestlers Jade Cargill, MFT Make Interesting Raw Appearances
Backstage, LA Knight and the Usos were laughing about a training montage that aired earlier in the night featuring Ishowspeed running the most basic of ropes alongside his WrestleMania tag team partners, Logan Paul and Austin Theory. They were interrupted by the MFT because WWE seemingly needed to remind us that the Bloodline saga will never truly end.
The MFT Crashed Raw to Further SmackDown Feud
Let’s face it, the MFT has not had the best time of late. On Friday, Tama Tonga convinced Solo Sikoa to give up the lantern that has inexplicably carried their feud with the Wyatts through months (months…), creating tension between the two. That led Sikoa to show up on Raw to confront his brothers for hanging around with a clown like Knight. Of course, Knight and Sikoa have a lot of history dating back nearly three years. Jimmy and Jey Uso tried to talk down their baby brother, but Knight had other plans and invited three of the MFTs into the ring for a tag team tune-up for his team. Sikoa accepted and showed up later in the night with JC Mateo and Tonga Loa as his partners. Talla Tonga guarded things at ringside.
In all, the match was a whole lot of nothing until the end. Action spilled to the outside as surprise, surprise things turned into a chaotic brawl between all wrestlers. That’s when Sikoa encountered the arriving Tama Tonga. Sikoa asked his factionmate where he was as Talla Tonga stood in between the two, protecting his leader. The distraction was enough to allow Knight to hit the BFT on Loa for the win. Sikoa seemed stunned as everything developed. In the end, this match did nothing but further the building issues between Sikoa and Tonga, which will ultimately erupt the way every Bloodline angle has, with one guy leaving the group to strike it out on his own. That guy seems to be Tonga, who has been getting advice from Shinsuke Nakamura about not needing the MFT. Interesting advice given Tonga spent much of his last decade aligned with the Bullet Club. But I digress. The MFT and Wyatts have an 8-man tag set for SmackDown, and that’s what this match seemed to be about, building the tension for the inevitable blow-up on Friday.
WWE Tries to Add Heat to Ripley/Cargill
Another SmackDown superstar appearance that didn’t really amount to much was WWE Women’s Champion Jade Cargill. In the midst of Kairi Sane against Iyo Sky, interference abounded, and yet somehow, none of it ended the match. Asuka attacked Sky, causing Rhea Ripley to come out to make the save, which led to Cargill ambushing Ripley. It was seemingly a receipt for what Ripley did to Michin and B-Fab last week on SmackDown. In reality, though, it felt flat and did nothing to make the Ripley/Cargill match interesting. At least Liv Morgan has added real stakes to her bout with Stephanie Vaquer that made things feel personal. Ripley and Cargill have very little heat, and Monday’s ambush didn’t do much to help that cause.
