{"id":112762,"date":"2022-04-11T16:30:24","date_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:30:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=112762"},"modified":"2022-04-11T16:07:09","modified_gmt":"2022-04-11T20:07:09","slug":"whats-next-the-bloodline-wwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/11\/whats-next-the-bloodline-wwe\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Next For The Bloodline in WWE?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On April 8\u2019s <em><strong>Friday Night SmackDown<\/strong>, <\/em>the newly coronated <strong>WWE<\/strong> Undisputed Champion <strong>Roman Reigns <\/strong>tasked his cousins, and <strong>Bloodline<\/strong> stablemates, T<strong>he Usos<\/strong> with a new mission, following his victory over <strong>Brock Lesnar <\/strong>at <em><strong>WrestleMania 38<\/strong>.<\/em> Reigns wishes for <strong>Jey Uso <\/strong>and <strong>Jimmy Uso<\/strong>, the current SmackDown Tag Team Champions, to venture to <strong><em>Monday Night Raw <\/em><\/strong>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.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Bloodline in WWE: What&#8217;s Next?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><a id=\"1qEF9Sn9RohSWVFT7cip8A\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1238628335\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'1qEF9Sn9RohSWVFT7cip8A',sig:'pWaBvI3RbFuPLEhGi8fGzewsPYOlckVZjrJAVZoDdAM=',w:'594px',h:'395px',items:'1238628335',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Road to the Undisputed Championship<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>When Reigns returned to WWE in 2020, his new persona, \u201cThe Tribal Chief\u201d rapidly took off in popularity. The villainous heel character <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/12\/19\/the-bloodline-in-2021-wwe\/\" target=\"_self\">showed gravitas and depth<\/a> 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\u2019d lacked, given his very real love\/hate relationship with WWE\u2019s audiences. This secretly insecure, vicious Reigns tore through a swath of challengers throughout WWE\u2019s latter 2020-2021 pay-per-view cycles: <strong>Kevin Owens, Bryan Danielson, Edge, Finn Balor, <\/strong>and <strong>John Cena, <\/strong>until being confronted by Lesnar after the close of his <strong><em>SummerSlam<\/em> 2021<\/strong> match against Cena. Lesnar, the man Reigns had yet to be victorious against on the \u201cGrandest Stage of Them All\u201d, <em>WrestleMania<\/em> played the role of Reign\u2019s final boss with relish. Reigns <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/03\/roman-reigns-unifies-wwe-universal-titles-wrestlemania\/\" target=\"_self\">eventually defeated Lesnar at <em>WrestleMania 38<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>unifying his own Universal title with Lesnar\u2019s WWE championship into the WWE Undisputed Championship.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>WWE Breaking Brand Barriers<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Now, with The Usos poised to invade Raw in their quest to take the \u201cred brand\u201d\u2019s tag titles, it seems WWE has plans to create a unified tag team championship, as well. The Usos last crossed over to <em>Raw<\/em> on March 28, when they lost to Raw Tag Team Champions <strong>RK-Bro<\/strong> via disqualification thanks to interference from the <strong>Street Profits.<\/strong> The Usos\u2019 SmackDown brandmates <strong>Rick Boogs<\/strong> and <strong>Shinsuke Nakamura<\/strong> also got involved. Segments such as this, with <em>SmackDown<\/em> and <em>Raw<\/em> stars crossing paths, seem to indicate WWE is leaning towards a de facto end to the brand split, with a modus operandi similar to <strong>All Elite Wrestling<\/strong><em>: <\/em>by and large, the same stars cross over freely between the brand\u2019s <strong><em>Dynamite<\/em><\/strong> and <strong><em>Rampage<\/em><\/strong> flagship shows. This creates yet more possibilities for the Bloodline to expand.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Solo Sikoa announces his arrival with beatdown of Grayson Waller: WWE NXT, Oct. 26, 2021\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C-kb8OoAn1c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Next Stop, NXT?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>While Raw and SmackDown\u2019s rosters have had more interactions throughout latter 2021 and 2022 so far, so too have the main roster and <strong><em>NXT 2.0<\/em><\/strong>. <strong>Dolph Ziggler <\/strong>enjoyed a run as the NXT Champion. <strong>Tommaso Ciampa <\/strong>and <strong>Bron Breakker<\/strong> also made appearances on <em>Raw<\/em>. The Usos\u2019 younger brother, <strong>Solo Sikoa, <\/strong>currently appears on NXT. The possibility exists that Sikoa might join his relatives\u2019 quest to commandeer WWE\u2019s titles, perhaps pursuing the NXT Championship to augment the Bloodlines\u2019 glory.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Women\u2019s Division<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Speculation that <strong>Naomi, <\/strong>current WWE Women\u2019s Tag team Champion alongside <strong>Sasha Banks<\/strong> and wife of Jimmy Uso, might somehow participate in the Bloodline storyline, has been floated in the past. After cries of <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/06\/19\/naomi-wwe-superstar-deserves-better\/\" target=\"_self\">outrage at Naomi\u2019s booking<\/a> in short and gimmicky matches, her fortunes changed with a well received feud with <strong>Sonya Deville<\/strong>, and a <em>WrestleMania 38 victory<\/em>, capturing the women\u2019s tag titles, with Banks, from <strong>Carmella<\/strong> and <strong>Queen Zelina.<\/strong> Naomi\u2019s profile has risen. An alliance with the Bloodline would\u00a0 necessitate a heel turn for the consistently popular babyface, but her vocal and loyal fans would probably cheer her on nonetheless.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" class=\"size-full wp-image-106361 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/12\/the-bloodline-wwe-2021.jpg\" alt=\"The Bloodline 2021\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/12\/the-bloodline-wwe-2021.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2021\/12\/the-bloodline-wwe-2021-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Bloodline in WWE &#8211; In Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>With the Usos\u2019 pursuit of the Raw tag team titles, the domination of the Bloodline, and WWE\u2019s relaxing of the brand split, are both set to continue, creating intriguing possibilities for future storylines.<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE Network<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peacock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 8\u2019s 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4152,"featured_media":112785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,25,26,4,5,3],"tags":[406,77,8343,7994,153],"class_list":["post-112762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-raw","category-smackdown","category-wwe","category-nxt","category-wwe-universe","tag-naomi","tag-roman-reigns","tag-solo-sikoa","tag-the-bloodline","tag-the-usos"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}