As someone who has been critical of WWE’s booking of Oba Femi since WrestleMania, I hold my hands up on this one — they may have just redeemed themselves.
How foolish we all feel now, those of us who thought having “The Ruler” in the King of the Ring final was just a ploy to set up some kind of Brock Lesnar interference. To even say it out loud now feels humiliating, but some of us genuinely thought Jey Uso was going to beat Oba Femi on Saturday at Night of Champions.
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To be fair, WWE did plant a few seeds to suggest that might be the case. Over on “Raw,” we had the all-powerful Roman Reigns making it clear that he wanted to see his cousin challenging Cody Rhodes at SummerSlam. That seemed like a good sign that WWE might indeed crown King Jey in Riyadh, thus setting up a Bloodline-tastic angle at SummerSlam. Though it turned out it was just a red herring.
Here’s another mea culpa: who among us genuinely expected that Femi vs. Uso would be a solid wrestling match? In all honesty, whoever produced this one knocked it out of the park. They managed to let Uso get some serious offense in, while still maintaining Femi’s whole indestructible vibe. Among the hefty clotheslines and no-sells there were some moments of genius: Uso’s acrobatic escape from Femi’s first “Fall From Grace” was beautiful.
To cap it off, they opted for exactly the right finish: Femi managing to put his opponent down for the three-count after the first hit of his finisher. In storyline or otherwise, Uso should have no reason to feel ashamed of that performance — though no doubt he’ll get a storyline tongue-lashing from Reigns on “Raw” nevertheless.
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The more interesting question is where they go with Femi. By now, we all know the stipulation: as King of the Ring, he has the right to challenge either of the world champions at SummerSlam. Given the shocking result at the end of the show, you have to expect that Femi will challenge Reigns.
Even better, should Femi face Reigns, you have to feel he’d stand a good chance of winning. Leaving aside all of the real-life stuff about Reigns’ scheduling commitments, there’s no denying that Femi’s presentation on the main roster has been in line with someone even “The OTC” would regard as a threat. No wonder Reigns has been racing to reassemble The Bloodline. He’ll need all the help he can get to hold back the former NXT champion.
Obviously, there’s still one potential wrinkle on the horizon: that 265-pound elephant in the room going by the name of Brock Lesnar. Looking back, the fact that “The Beast Incarnate” didn’t show up in Riyadh shouldn’t be so much of a surprise, given his notorious reluctance to travel. But that certainly doesn’t mean the whole Lesnar vs. Femi feud is over.
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I mean, remember that promo a few weeks ago where Femi directly called out Lesnar’s manhood on “Raw”? As far as hints go, that one was about as subtle as a sledgehammer, and left most of us assuming WWE are firmly committed to doing Femi vs. Lesnar 3 before long. I assumed it might happen at this year’s SummerSlam, which takes place in Lesnar’s former stomping ground of Minneapolis. After tonight, that looks less likely.
Seeing Femi in a world title match is infinitely more exciting than rerunning Lesnar vs. Femi (a feud I maintain should have ended at WrestleMania). But it does raise the less-than-brilliant possibility that we’re going to have Brock showing up mid-match to cost “The Ruler” the win on the biggest night of his career. If that happens, I’m not sure I’d be able to keep my column clean. Surely the world title angle has to be the bigger story here?
If they’re sensible, though, WWE will stay clear of that path. Much better to do what we’re all hoping: strap a rocket to Femi’s back and make him WWE champion in front of a stadium crowd in Minneapolis. There have been some ups and downs on this journey for sure, but we’re currently looking at one hell of an end destination come August.
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