Last year, people predicted that Solo Sikoa and Roman Reigns would collide at WrestleMania. Today, WrestleMania 41 is in the rearview mirror, and Sikoa didn’t even make the card. It seems like a steep fall from grace for one of WWE SmackDown’s marquee acts, but Paul Heyman disagrees.
Sikoa was a key player from the week after WrestleMania 40 until January. The Bloodline’s stoic enforcer initiated a hostile takeover of the faction in Reigns’ absence. Sikoa decimated Jimmy Uso and Paul Heyman before reimagining The Bloodline in his vision with new soldiers like Jacob Fatu and Tama Tonga. His success carried him to a SummerSlam main event with undisputed WWE champion Cody Rhodes.
“I think Solo Sikoa was the single most improved performer in WWE from WrestleMania 40 through this week,” Heyman told CBS Sports. “I am so proud of what he accomplished in that time.
“I would dare say that if you look back a few years from now at the year that he had in carrying that side of SmackDown, that it wasn’t only the most improved performer of the past year, but that he is perhaps the most improved performer over a one-year span ever.”
Sikoa’s standing was tested around November. Reigns pinned Sikoa in a WarGames match pitting two versions of The Bloodline against each other. In January, he lost the Ula Fala and status as “Tribal Chief” to Roman Reigns, marking the conclusion — at least for now — of a Bloodline storyline lasting years. Sikoa hasn’t been featured as prominently since losing to Reigns, a necessary setback by Heyman’s assessment.
“It’s an adjustment period…” Heyman said. “Especially when the stakes are that high, doesn’t winning and losing have to mean something?”
“If losing doesn’t mean something, then by the very nature of that statement, aren’t you bringing down what it means to win? Isn’t it a fact that when two people fight, there is a guaranteed winner and a guaranteed loser?”
Heyman argued it would have done a disservice to Reigns, who went on to headline WrestleMania 41 Night 1 against CM Punk and Seth Rollins, had Sikoa immediately bounced back.
“You can’t spend a year with the rocket ship trajectory that Solo Sikoa had, and then when you pay it off, immediately move on to something else that is substantive and meaningful and on top,” Heyman said. “If you do, you negate the effectiveness and mitigate the circumstances around the loss of the Ula Fala back to Roman Reigns.
“This is why, when Brock Lesnar lost a title, you wouldn’t see him on TV right away. If you did it was under very rare circumstances… It’s why Roman Reigns disappeared after last year’s WrestleMania 40.”
Check out the full interview with Paul Heyman below.
Standing next to Fatu further illuminates Sikoa’s current predicament. Fatu’s aura and intensity drive attention from everyone around him, including Sikoa. Though Sikoa leads their group, Fatu left WrestleMania 41 as United States champion while Sikoa watched from the sidelines.
One can only imagine Sikoa’s frustrations. If that’s the case, Heyman says it shouldn’t be. Heyman commends Sikoa for helping anchor SmackDown for much of last year and fleshing out his character from silent killer to head honcho.
“There is far less thrill for the audience in the victory if there is no agony for that defeat,” Heyman said.
“He went from being a stoic mute to being someone that can carry his end of the microphone against anybody that he wanted to, including me, including Roman Reigns, including anybody that stepped up against him on that microphone. Solo Sakoa held his own. I did not hear of, witness nor read about — even on the cynical internet — I did not hear, I did not read a report, I have no knowledge of a bad match that he had over the past year.
“If I’m inside the head, soul and spirit of Solo Sikoa and I’m anything less than ecstatic, then it’s a bad assessment of where that man’s head should be. He should be walking around with his chest puffed out, his shoulders cannonball wide and pride written all over his face.”
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