At SummerSlam 2023, we had Jey Uso finally wrestling the man that had been bullying and controlling him for the past three years, Roman Reigns. At the end of the match, we saw Jey losing because his brother, Jimmy betrayed him. This is strange since the Usos/Reigns dissension story started with Jimmy betraying Reigns…and honestly, I’m not even bothering to think about this.
I just want to know, what’s the story?
If The Bloodline is truly one of pro wrestling’s best stories of all time, I just need somebody to tell me what it is about. Let’s talk a bit about storytelling first.
I’m no story expert, but I have seen a lot of movies, I have read a lot of books, and I have a BA in Literature. Plus, I have written two novels in Spanish. I have been published in short story collections. I’m laying all of this out to prove that while I might not be an expert on storytelling, I have some insight.
Here are the basics, everything a story needs: a beginning, a middle, and an end. This last one is the most important one since things have to end. Time is finite, and people get tired. Plus you have to know when to tie up a story. This applies to movies, books, short stories, music, and wrestling columns.
There! We got the basics.
Now let’s talk about The Bloodline.
The basic story is simple: Roman Reigns is an insecure champion. He hired the services of Paul Heyman to be even more successful. He is bullying his cousins, The Usos, into doing his bidding. He is asking them to interfere in his matches since he is afraid to lose the championship. The dude is so insecure that he is always questioning the alliances of The Usos, playing them against each other to have even more control over them, except when he took a break from questioning them so he could question Sami Zayn’s alliance to The Bloodline.
What would be an obvious ending to this story I laid out?
Jey Uso, after years of having his loyalty questioned, would finally have enough, and he beats Reigns in the middle of the ring. The Usos celebrate beating the bad guy, and Reigns pays the consequences of years of abuse and roll credits.
But that did not happen, and will not happen, since Reigns has been the WWE champion for 1,000 plus days, and neither the fans nor critics would accept Jey Uso as being the new champion, much less beating a historic reign (pun was not intended).
Maybe you don’t like Jey Uso being the champion. That’s okay. Here is another ending for you: we have Reigns comfortable in his role as an unsure champion. Suddenly, a hot babyface opponent appears. The opponent could be a former friend who got tired of him (Sami Zayn) or a new face in the territory (Cody Rhodes) and said opponent beat Reigns in the middle of the ring. He loses his title, which is the start of the heel getting his comeuppance. First, he loses his title, then he loses his stable when tThe Usos see him for what he is. He loses to his cousins and gets beaten by them, Solo Sikoa leaves him, Heyman does not want anything to do with him anymore, so he has to win the fans and fellow wrestlers back. He has to become confident once again.
The natural end point of The Bloodline could have been this insecure champion paying the consequences of his actions, and then we could have had a new facet to the Roman Reigns character. Maybe he could finally be the babyface the company wanted from him all along.
So, what happened in reality?
Nothing.
For three years, it has been the same exact thing: Reigns cheats on his matches, bullies the group, and questions their loyalty. We still have no idea why it took three years for The Usos to rebel. If Reigns is so insecure, why did he never look for other people to be part of his stable? It is just the same thing all the time. In WWE, The Bloodline is Groundhog Day.
There’s nothing new. There’s no storyline advancement. There’s no movement. There’s no end in sight. It is a story without an ending that even the most hardcore fans on social media are getting tired of. Check any comments section for SummerSlam results.
So again, why is this being called one of the greatest pro wrestling stories? Why is this cinema? Is cinema never-ending stories where people stare at each other? What’s the ending? There’s no ending in sight. How can you say something is great when you don’t even know where it’s heading?
They could have comfortably ended this back in February or April. SummerSlam could have been the definite end. But sadly, we are back with Jimmy betraying his brother, and we’ll have months of trials again. Nothing will change, nothing will matter, and the championship will be stuck on an unmoving storyline.
When you are failing to cover the simple bases of storytelling, then your story sucks, sorry. The Bloodline has been a nice storyline with some hot moments, and it’s okay to call it that. But they are clearly improvising month to month, and while it’s working in the short term, eventually, it will explode on their faces.
Also, it’s about time for them to decide who will end it, and to start looking at the future. There is nothing positive that I can see in WWE’s immediate future: no star wrestlers, and they forgot how stories work.
The saddest thing about this? They will probably do a similar never-ending storyline with Judgement Day.
But I’m opening this to you, The Bloodline fan and critic: what’s the story?
Is it a bully paying consequences in the future? Dominant champion seeing the error of his ways and being better eventually? Is it to establish the next big babyface of the next five years by having him beat one of the biggest heels in WWE in years?
What’s the ending?
A never-ending loop of the same things happening is not a storyline. Things need to advance. Stuff needs to happen. And most importantly, end in a satisfying manner that makes the fans want to come back and see even more of your stories.
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