3 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Sunday Night's Main Event
2. Another Oba Setback
Heading into Sunday’s collision between Oba Femi and Bron Breakker, the open-ended question was whether we would get a clean finish that definitively determined who was “the future of WWE.” Spoiler: we didn’t.
There will be some praise later for this match, but when judging something like this as a point in time, it’s important to call attention to the potential negatives as well.
On the heels of WrestleMania 42, Oba Femi looked like he was on a rocket to a world title, a guaranteed, can’t-miss megastar. Then he won the King of the Ring tournament, which carried a world title match at SummerSlam… which he gave up (or pushed aside, that hasn’t been clarified yet) to face Brock Lesnar instead.
Sunday, Femi faced off against Breakker in a highly anticipated match. A clean win for Oba would set him on a clear path to the top, and it could provide Bron with a reason for introspection and evolution.
Instead, The Vision got involved in a series of distractions, capped off by a returning Bronson Reed just waffling Femi with a chair for the disqualification. And thus, a match hyped for weeks and built nearly perfectly was discarded to reboot a stable that has been on life support for nearly a year. We still don’t know who “the future of WWE” is, and weeks of hype disappeared into the ether. (It should be noted that a breathless Cathy Kelley rushed to Paul Heyman, asking what this DQ meant for the future.)
Oba has suffered another setback on his road to the main event, which could be smart booking – delaying the gratification – or it could have a Lex Luger effect on Femi if WWE continues to sideline him. Breakker is now even more rooted into his stable of goofs, after weeks of looking like he wanted nothing to do with them.
A lot can go right with this Femi push at this stage, but if WWE is going to insist on these side quests, they need to manage everything properly and ensure that his star doesn’t wane.