13 Ups & 9 Downs For WWE In 2022
2. The Bloodline
The Bloodline would be a good act even if it were just - at long and painstaking last - the group that presented Roman Reigns as the unquestionable biggest star in the industry performing up to the level of a person that warrants and subsequently reimagines the spot.
It would still be a good act if it was just a way to keep The Usos credible as Tag Team Champions after years of stop-start booking for the brothers and the division itself.
It would still be a good act if it was there as a soft launch for the untested Solo Sikoa to make his mark alongside his family in a silent enforcer role that protects and serves without exposing any unknown limitations.
It would still be a good act if it existed for only one overall purpose - making Sami Zayn's eventual heartbreaking exit from the stable a central plot thread going into the biggest wrestling event of 2023.
It's great, so so so great, because it's all of them and more!
From Roman Reigns' exceptionally deliberate pacing, menace and fear-mongering now having renewed purpose after months of being bored to tears with his gaslighting of The Usos, to all sorts of elevated stakes in multiple singles and tag matches due to the individual and group motivations of the team, to even just presenting t-shirt angles as transcendent moments in professional wrestling, The Bloodline has the lot and fans only want more.
It's a storyline driver for feuds with others while being its own self-contained saga, with the only drawback being that the "Ucey" act has gotten so over that they're typically cheered everywhere they go despising needing to stay just this side of the heel divide for the whole thing to really work. That probably won't matter soon - Sami's likely ex-communication from the family at some point in early 2023 will surely make them figures of detestable hate, and tee up some epic retribution by Zayn and former best mate Kevin Owens in a WrestleMania epic.
And speaking of Owens in a WrestleMania epic...