4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE SmackDown (13 June - Results & Review)
4. Not Really Explosive Follow Up
Presumably, the storyboard for Jacob Fatu's duelling promo with Solo Sikia was scribbled on a napkin in catering once writers realised they'd accidentally left it off the pre-production scripts. That's the only explanation fitting for why this was so lifeless and outright failed to follow up on Fatu turning away from Sikoa's leadership at Money In The Bank.
Jacob prevented Solo from winning the ladder match and became his own man at MITB. Here, Fatu was cutting a promo about all of that when Sikoa interrupted on the big screen to say he wants to hear Jacob say, “I love you, Solo” next week. Sure, it's easy to get what WWE were going for here, but it was tepid follow up to Fatu becoming a concrete babyface. There's a reason why the live crowd were so quiet after Sikoa’s speech, then Jacob left to silence.
Honestly? Too low key for somebody this explosive. There’s also no real aura to Solo and JC Mateo now Fatu is out of the group, so it’s hard to take Sikoa’s threats seriously. He was flitting in and out of comedy spots at MITB, and now here he is making ominous threats like a Mafia kingpin who's ready to put his bloodline down for good.
It does look likely that Hikuleo will replace Jacob by Solo's side, but reports flooded in that he debuted on the Main Event taping before SmackDown went live. That's hardly the most high profile way to introduce him. Christ knows how WWE managed to fumble all of this so badly on Friday. Were the writing team drunk?