15 Exact Moments Failed WWE Gimmicks Actually Got Over
13. The MFTs
Solo Sikoa did not work as a main event-level heel.
To his credit, Triple H tried. Sikoa debuted at Clash At The Castle 2022 as the man who broke Drew McIntyre’s dreams. The reception wasn’t great, but that was understandable. Nobody knew who he was; this was his game-changing introduction.
Sikoa was cast as the killer of the Bloodline, the guy so hard and merciless that he might one day overthrow Roman Reigns. The problem there is that snarling and real presence are not the same thing. Sikoa had a good old school heel body, but not a great one. He was bigger than the Usos, but lacked the physical threat (and the frightening intensity) of an Umaga. Sikoa failed in one too many big match auditions - neither John Cena nor Cody Rhodes could elevate him - and, accepting defeat, Triple H rushed through the Bloodline civil war stuff by having Roman Reigns ease past him on the Raw Is Netflix premiere. In an inspired tweak, Triple H took the idea that Sikoa was a pretender and made that the whole point by pairing him with the genuine article in Jacob Fatu.
The resulting feud didn’t work in the ring, but it did allow Sikoa to become a fun midcard fixture, which felt beyond him at one point. Sikoa enthusiastically embraced the idea of becoming a clown, and by referring to Jacob as a guy with “All gas, no brains”, and doing a very silly laugh for his own amusement, Sikoa developed into a decent WWE heel prototype - a cult hit.
The MFTs are a good midcard outfit precisely because WWE does not ask you to take them too seriously, which was Sikoa’s problem all along. In October 2025, the essence of the group was made clear visually when the MFTs debuted a face-painted new look. They were pretending to be tough; the penny dropped.
A new lick of paint actually worked.