The Secret WWE History Of The Bloodline

Just how long will WWE be able to ride the wave of momentum caused by the enormously well-received conclusion to WrestleMania XL?

As they continue to navigate through the early days of the officially-anointed "Paul Levesque Era", the answer to that difficult question will become clearer. But the sheer scale of credit the market leader built with its core base over the course of its biggest weekend of the year suggests that those in charge could tank everything tomorrow and still get through to next year's Royal Rumble on good will alone.

By joining forces almost a decade after they'd teased the idea for the first time, The Rock and Roman Reigns set the wheels in motion for a WrestleMania season like few WWE had ever booked before. Rock embraced his beloved "Hollywood Rock" heel persona with the volume, violence and bad language turned further up than it ever was when he bantered off Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and Goldberg back in 2003.

Meanwhile, the Undisputed WWE Universal Champion of almost four years had to work even harder just to keep up with his cousin's impossibly incredible aura. He slow-played it, knowing just how well everything would play out during his Night Two main event against Cody Rhodes when the spotlight shone brightest on both Champion and Challenger.

By folding all of this together with a literal backdrop of The Bloodline family tree shown in all its glory for the first time during the build, WWE were smartly able to weave together the most charismatic performers, biggest money-drawing acts and deepest familial lore. It was an unimpeachable formula, and one that made for the perfect one-two punch over WWE's biggest nights of the year.

But the grand finale of WrestleMania XL couldn't have realistically occurred without the divisive ending to WrestleMania 39 one year earlier, and per recent reporting, the (very) long game was the preferred pathway for all involved other than Cody Rhodes himself.

What looked and felt very much like a Vince McMahon call on the exact weekend he temporarily forced his way back into the Gorilla Position in WWE turned out to be something he, Triple H and Roman Reigns all came to an agreement on. Rhodes' disappointment was as undeniable as his rise. He'd started his "story" with a fabulous post-debut promo on the Raw after his WrestleMania 38 return, and to put a bow on it a year later was seemingly perfect justification for the bold career move he made.

The tale - tall as some of it might have been, but wrestling's a work and Rhodes is one of the best workers ever - was that he had to make up for a kayfabe crime committed against his father in 1977. There, 'The American Dream' had defeated WWWF Champion 'Superstar' Billy Graham by count-out and excitedly held the title aloft before being reminded of the Champion's advantage. The belt was wrestled away before he had a chance to have it for real, and with that Cody had a ready-made rationale to right a wrong 45 years later.

That feeling was painfully familiar for Cody in 2023, but arguably worse - he didn't even get to lay a finger on the strap itself before he was sat clutching his knees trying not to make eye contact with the rubber chicken. The 1970s and 2020s couldn't be further apart in many respects, but here the parallel was brutal - a name with heritage yet again being blocked from breaking new ground.

In an odd quirk of fate though, this was actually a dose of history repeating itself. In the same year Rhodes stopped just short of dethroning Billy Graham, Peter Maivia was making waves of his own. Initially a well-regarded and visually arresting babyface with half of his body covered in tattoo ink, Maivia was a fearsome heel opposing Bob Backlund - the man that actually managed to terminate Graham's title reign in 1978.

The links and bonds between then and now go much deeper of course, as they would for generations to come, but the 'High Chief's time at the top would sadly be short-lived. He passed away from cancer in 1981 at just 45, sadly not living long enough to see the many fruits of his labour and blood-bond with Amituanai Anoa'i. Peter and Amituanai's oath to one another unified the Maivias and Anoa'is into one family unit, bringing together the wrestlers that emerged in enormous numbers on either side. Amituanai was the father of Afa and Skia, The Wild Samoans.

The pair won tag gold pretty much everywhere they went, including for Vince McMahon Sr and Jr in separate runs between 1978 and 1985. The gimmicks were of the time, but undeniably effective nonetheless. Cast as barely-evolved humans beyond fighting, eating and having hard heads, Afa and Sika excelled in the spots, keeping kayfabe at all times and ensuring that audience's fear of the unknown - and hope that the babyfaces would solve the problem - remained the unique selling point.

It was during this time that the family business extended outwards too - Afa's son Samu joined in as alternate Samula before working briefly as a babyface when the Samoans left the company, and their final Tag Team Title defeat came at the hands of Tony Atlas and Rocky Johnson. The latter was family by marriage, having wedded Ata Maivia, with the two of those having a son, Dwayne, but much more on him later. As the decade and company continued to change, so too did the landscape for what was rapidly becoming a wrestling dynasty in the McMahon territory.

The babyface Tonga Kid (son of Iaulualo Folau Solofa Fatu Sr and Elevera Anoa'i, brother of Edward "Umaga" Fatu and Solofa "Rikishi" Fatu) was repackaged as Tama and linked up with Tonga "Haku" Fifita to form The Islanders. They quickly joined the Heenan Family to pad out what was perhaps the most stacked tag division in WWE history, making it onto pay-per-view in the company's enormous Tag Team Survivor Series match in 1987 as well as for a WrestleMania IV showdown with The British Bulldog. Haku is yet another to help tether the past to the present as the uncle and adoptive father of current Bloodline new recruit Tama Tonga, and would prove to be a prominent figure with the company until his departure in 1992.

He was one of several from the company's golden era to depart as the organisation was in a state of flux, but the year was to be one of the most profound for ever-growing Anoa'i/Maivia family tree. More and more branches blossomed, and having gained raves for their work as the Samoan SWAT Team in Puerto Rico and WCW, Solofa Fatu and Samuel Anoa'i were about to make the biggest move of their career and have a transformative impact on the market leader...