When an angry Rikishi ripped off the following quote on his Off The Top podcast after repeatedly watching his son, Jey Uso, get overlooked for opportunities on television, it turned heads around the IWC for, well, obvious reasons.
“It’s a concern. At the end of the day, these are our bodies, and this is my flesh and blood. My flesh and blood is pounding his body day in and day out,” Rikishi declared via Fightful. “He has a family and comes home aching, his body is hurting. He’ll never sell it because he’s not trained to quit. You sign that dotted line, I’m not talking about that contract, that dotted.”
What? Jey Uso in AEW? How would that even work? Would his gimmick even make sense in AEW? Or would the fans of Tony Khan’s company outright reject the younger brother of Jimmy, as his in-ring action simply doesn’t live up to his promotional hype, at least as a singles star?
Well, fans won’t have to wonder any longer, as for one reason or another, Rikishi took to Off The Top once more to let fans know that his Bloodline boys aren’t leaving WWE any time soon, as the Dynasty’s home is on RAW, SmackDown, and NXT.
“I can’t even call it. When was the last time you’ve ever seen anything like that? I’m a fan now. I don’t even want to say anything no more because every time I say something, I make news, and then people twist my words, like I’m against WWE. I’m not against WWE. Why would I be against WWE?” Rikishi asked.
“If you’re gonna talk about what I said, please make sure you put down exact; don’t twist my words around. I’m gonna say it again: WWE is The Dynasty’s home, period. We are not going nowhere, we don’t plan to go nowhere. The past, present, and future. Give me a YEET on that.”
Gosh, what happened there? Did WWE reach out to Rikishi and tell him to cool it? Or did that call instead come from Jey, Jimmy, or even Solo Sikoa, who didn’t want to see the “Yeet Man’s” push get overshadowed by their father’s comments? It’s impossible to know – at least, of course, unless Rikishi decides to tell us next week – but even if he claimed that AEW might give his son more freedom to shine, few fans actually expected a move to happen. Why? Because, like Rikishi said, WWE is the Samoan Dynasty’s home, and frankly, it would be weird in any other promotion.
Rikishi weighs in on getting over Jacob Fatu in WWE
Elsewhere on his Off The Top podcast, Rikishi discussed the new Bloodline and how the group has acclimated itself to the WWE Universe, especially as Roman Reigns prepares to make his triumphant return after being soft-written off of television when SmackDown was still on Fox.
With Reigns clearly looking to target the faction when he returns in the future, Rikishi was asked who he would like to see get a crack at the “Tribal Chief” first, Sikoa or his enforcer, Jacob Fatu, when that day comes. While his son, he believes, is a “made man” who can take wins and losses against the best stars in the WWE Universe, Fatu may be better off building up his win-loss record before going after a future Hall of Famer, as fans haven’t yet seen what the “Samoan Werewolf” has up his sleeve just yet.
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“I think he can go either way. It just depends on, you know, which way that — I guess it depends which way the GOAT [Reigns] feels. Either way, whether he goes with Jacob, that’ll be good; whether he goes with Solo, we all know that’s going to be good, but I feel that Jacob has momentum right now. Solo is a made guy already, and so with Jacob, he has momentum, but if we throw him right now to Roman, I feel we’re rushing him. I feel that Jacob should just terrorize, do regular TV matches with different talent, just because Jacob has yet to show his wrestling ability [to the WWE audience],” Rikishi explained via PW Mania.
“I feel we need to, you know, really brand him. He’s branded, he does … he did his branding on the independent. We need to put him on TV matches, give him like three, four minutes, you know, let’s spice up. I think they can do better with, as far as his intro. We need something exactly what the Bloodline is: dramatic.”
Despite being an absolute legend before he even wrestled a match on SmackDown, working with some of the greatest stars in professional wrestling during his time at MLW or on the indies, he really isn’t a known commodity to WWE fans who don’t venture outside of the promotion, having worked just four television matches so far. Sure, Fatu is an absolute menace and can borderline dominate any foe he takes on in WWE, MLW, or beyond, but he should probably wrestle at least one singles match on television before he takes a shot at Reigns, Cody Rhodes, or any other top-tier star for that matter, right?
