Solo Sikoa to Cody Rhodes: 'I'm Coming For You' (2024)

The ‘go-home episode’ of SmackDown came to us live from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the same site for tomorrow night’s Money in the Bank Premium Live Event (PLE). With the event’s six participants set for the event’s titular matches, with the opportunity to win a contract to challenge for their respective brand’s top titles, the two ladder matches add to the rest of the five-match fight card that is also fully set.

Building To The Briefcase

The frontrunner for this year’s men’s MITB, Jey Uso, opened the show, and it is difficult to assess what that means. On the one hand, giving as much build to the eventual winner is a great way to set the tone, but on the other hand, there may be reasons to doubt if WWE is ‘working’ this hard to make us believe. It is also hard to ignore the ‘underdog’ theme of this year’s MITB triple threat qualifiers.

The Yeet Man was not alone very long as LA Knight made his way out, followed by the rest of the field.

McIntyre was in the middle of stealing the show as fans were deafening with CM Punk chants, but that was predictable when the brawl broke out to close the segment. Teamwork was a theme intentionally used to neutralize McIntyre, and while this may sound like a stretch, we could reveal one of the participants to assist in Punk’s interference because Punk will undoubtedly interfere or risk missing an opportunity to prevent the feud from growing stale.

Face Fridays

Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton, and Kevin Owens came out to cut a promo on their Bloodline opponents at MITB. There was not a lot of build, nor was it really possible with only one side of a storyline in a segment or show. Randy was great, but KO really brought it tonight. That said, Cody injected real-life struggles into the storyline in a way that only he could. The final moments of SmackDown were used to air a video vignette of the Bloodline voiced over by the new ‘head of the table’ in Solo Sikoa. The promo lost something as a produced video instead of a fiery in-ring promo, but it hit many of the right notes.

With the Ula Fala in hand, Solo confidently claims that is all he needs to be considered the Tribal Chief. He claimed that his power grab was one of reluctance and only based on Roman’s failure to secure the WWE title at Mania against Cody. “He was not man enough to defend our legacy against Cody Rhodes,” Solo said. “Therefore, he shall no longer call himself tribal chief because I’m the tribal chief now. Then, Solo made it clear that his sights are set on Cody and the WWE world title, a title that Solo called “undisputed.”

“And if Roman Reigns wants that back, he can try and take it from me,” Solo said before announcing the target on Cody’s back in the upcoming six-man tag.

Tag Titles For Friends And Frenemies

A-Town Down Under (Theory & Waller) (c) vs. DIY (Ciampa & Gargano)—WWE Tag Titles

If the official count for the HHH reign began after WrestleMania40, then it was only months before ‘Trips’ made up for the handling of his favorite NXT (Black and Yellow era) tag team, DIY’s Johnny Gargano and Tomaso Ciampa.

The breakup storyline for A-Town Down has been building, but it may have been cemented after their losing effort tonight. But it was not just that they lost, it was how they lost as Waller ‘accidentally’ made contact with a strike on Theory in the corner–not to mention Waller pulled him in front of a super kick that he was on the receiving end of–and other moments that highlighted the “team’s” dysfunction. And, despite this storyline unfolding against the toughest in-ring challenge to their title reign, Theory still did all he could to remain champs. The challengers took full advantage of the dissension as Ciampa hit ‘Project Ciampa’ on Waller, followed by the “Meet Me in the Middle” with some help from Gargano. The double super kick connected on Waller, leading to another of many near-falls from the former NXT champions, and the title change could be felt wafting through the screen.

Toronto was the place where DIY won the NXT tag titles. In fact, the pair gave an impassioned promo in their usual shot of walking to the ring. In it, they spoke about how their biggest moments occurred in the city, setting the tone for what was to come. In the end, it started familiarly with the ‘Gargano Escape’ locked in on Waller, and then full-blown de ja vu set in as Theory prevented Waller’s hand from coming down to ‘tap out’ when Ciampa was able to lock the ‘Sicilian Stretch’ on the former US champ.

The would-be former champs tapped out in unison, and DIY are now the new tag team champions, making A-Town Down the final pair to lose the newly designed titles separated at Mania from their undisputed designation. DIY has been the best workhorses in the division for quite some time, and that says a lot, considering the WWE tag team division was stacked in the lead-up to Mania. Now, it is time to see if DIY can ascend to even higher heights as champs.

Tidbits/In-Ring Action

• Pretty Deadly vs. Street Profits: This was a solid match, and it could benefit from a PLE match structure as opposed to the limits of TV matches. Ford outshined per usual, but all four men showed why they should be considered serious contenders in an ever-growing tag division. The Street Profits won off the back of another picture-perfect Ford ‘Frog Splash.’
• Belair and Cargill defeated LeRae and Hartwell in a short affair. If this was who Belair and Cargill are beefing with this week, then it is likely to change before the end of this week’s programming—then pick back up inexplicably weeks later. Seriously, what is being done with two of the most promising stars in WWE (not to mention two of the best workers in LeRae and Hartwell)?

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