#271: Roman Reigns vs. Jey Uso, WWE SummerSlam (8/5/2023).
Hello, readers!
If you’re a wrestling fan, then you may be aware that “Main Event” Jey Uso is arguably the hottest wrestler in WWE today. I don’t even watch WWE actively, but thanks to videos on Reddit, it’s hard to deny the momentum he’s earned for himself. I did watch the Royal Rumble recently – only to see the final Rumble Match of John Cena – and I got to see first hand how over he has become over the years. Jey would win the Men’s Rumble, and declare his shot at WrestleMania 41 against World Heavyweight Champion Gunther.
So, to celebrate the occasion, I thought I’d go back and take a look at some of the recent singles outings for Mr. Main Event. I’ve not seen any of the matches I’m doing this week, but as time has moved on, I’ve matured and gone from “I hate everything WWE!” to “I don’t watch WWE, but I’m open to check out things I’ve missed out on.” I’ll be the first to admit I was deep into tribalism when I stopped watching, but you get older, and you get wiser, and I now see just how fucking stupid tribalism is.
Speaking of things with the word “Tribal,” up first this week is Jey’s match with Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, in a match dubbed “Tribal Combat.” This match was years in the making, and can be dated back to the Fall of 2020, when Roman had defeated Jey in an I Quit Hell in a Cell Match, and thus forcing Jey to acknowledge Roman as “Head of the Table.” From there, Jey became a brainwashed subservient to Roman, and along with his brother Jimmy and cousin Solo Sikoa, they formed “The Bloodline.”
With the passage of time, the group dominated WWE, with Roman holding the Universal Championship for over nearly three years, while he also held the WWE Championship since WrestleMania 38 in April of 2022, and The Usos held both the Raw and Smackdown Tag Team Championships. The Bloodline owned WWE, and no one could stop them. Oh, and Solo was there to interfere in all the major matches. From what I’ve seen, he’s nothing but a heater.
This all started to crash down at WrestleMania 39, when The Usos lost their Unified Tag Titles to Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in the first Tag Title Match to main event a WrestleMania. Roman would successfully defend his titles against Cody Rhodes, but now the group was down a championship. At Night of Champions, Roman and Solo would challenge Owens and Zayn, but would come out on the losing end, thanks to an accidental strike from The Usos to Solo.
Roman was furious at his cousins for this, which led to Jimmy taking his frustations out on Roman. The Usos would formally leave the Bloodline, setting the stage for a major tag team match at Money in the Bank, which would see The Usos beat Roman and Solo, and ending with Jey pinning Roman, which was monumental at the time, since Roman hadn’t had a pinfall defeat since TLC in 2019. This momentum would lead to Jey declaring a challenge to Roman for SummerSlam, and the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.
As an added stipulation to Tribal Combat, the winner of this match would be declared “The Tribal Chief” of the family. After three years, Jey Uso was looking to redeem himself from three years prior, while Roman was attempting to keep a grasp on his empire that was seemingly falling apart at the seams.
The bell sounds for this, and we are under way. There’s a staredown right away, with Jey taking in the importance of this moment, while Roman looks annoyed right away. They lock up, and Roman quickly forces Jey into the turnbuckle. He shoves Jey, and Jey shoves him back. Roman laughs it off. He’s clearly not taking Jey seriously. They lock up again, and Roman takes the side headlock. He follows up with a shoulder tackle. Jey shakes it off, as Roman continues to ooze confidence.
The crowd is hot for this, and they haven’t even really done anything yet. That says a lot about their investment in this story. Jey takes the side headlock next, but eats a back elbow for his troubles. Roman tosses Jey into the turnbuckle, and drives his boot into the back of the neck. He drives his knee into Jey’s jaw. He looks down at Jey, who is struggling so far. Jey blocks a back suplex, and unloads with some good strikes to the face.
Jey with a superkick to the midsection, and an uppercut. He clotheslines Roman to the outside, and follows with a Tope to the back. Jey with an irish whip to Roman into the steel steps. He makes hard eyet contact with Paul Heyman at ringside, and then listens to the crowd chants. He abides to their request, and brings a table into play. Heyman tries to talk him down, saying that Roman loves him, but Jey doesn’t listen. Jey sets the table up, and Roman smashes Jey’s head off the steel steps.
Back in the ring, Roman sends Jey head first into the turnbuckle. Irish whip by Roman, and Jey fights back with a kick. Roman is quick to get back on offense by sending Jey into the turnbuckle head first. The fans are chanting hard for Jey, which seems to be getting to Roman. He nails the Drive By to Jey, and gets a nearfall off of it. More taunting from Roman to the fans, and they aren’t giving him shit. Jey with a couple of right hands to the face, and a step up enziguri, which sends Roman to the floor.
Jey goes for another Tope, but here’s Roman with a Singapore Cane to the head. In the ring, Roman unleashes a barrage of attacks with the stick, to the chorus of boos. Roman panders to the crowd, as he uses the stick to bring “little Jey” back to his feet. Jey blocks an attack with a strike to the face. Roman comes back with aggressive clotheslines to Jey in the corner. Roman locks and loads the Superman Punch. He goes for it, and Jey counters it with a stick attack to the midsection.
Now Jey unloads on Roman with the Singapore Cane, and he even splinters it! Roman is clotheslined to the floor, and Jey launches himself to the outside with a Senton. Back in the ring, Jey looks for a top rope dive, but gets caught with the Superman Punch out of nowhere. Roman covers, and he gets a 2 count. Roman sets up for the Spear, but Jey dives over him and gets a roll up off for a 2 count. Jey with a superkick to Roman, and he quickly scales the top rope! Uso Splash connects! Jey covers, and Roman kicks out in a very good nearfall.
Jey grabs a chair from under the ring, and brings it into the ring. Hard shot to the spine from Jey, as Heyman begs him to stop. Jey with another hard chair shot to the back, and now he goes to the floor and throws in a whole stack of chairs. Heyman begs for mercy, and Jey doesn’t give a damn. Jey places Roman on the top rope and attempts a suplex, but the champion headbutts Jey to avoid it. Step up enziguri by Jey rocks Roman, and he tries for it again. Now on the very top rope, Jey goes for a superplex, but Roman slips out and powerbombs Jey onto the chairs. He covers, and Jey kicks out.
The crowd tries to will Jey on, and Roman attempts to get them to lower the volume. They boo him greatly, and it was funny. Roman drags another table out from under the ring. He brings it inside, and sets it up in the corner. Jey rushes him, and Roman lifts him into the air, and places him on the apron. Jey pulls Roman’s throat into the top rope. They exchange punches back and forth, until Jey tries to dive in. Roman catches him with a hard right hand to the jaw.
Roman runs the ropes for a Spear, and Jey counters with a kick. He lifts Roman up briefly, but he elbows his way free. Jey is determined, though, and is able to hit a Samoan Drop to Roman from the apron through the table on the outside! Jey grabs a leather strap from under the ring, and whips Roman right on the spine. Roman is bleeding from his elbow. Another strap shot from Jey, as he follows him into the crowd.
Someone in the crowd yells “Do it for Jimmy, Jey!” I found that to be funnier than I should’ve. Here comes Bloodline heater Solo Sikoa to once again interfere in a big Roman Reigns match. He grabs Jey and nails a Urinage through a table in the crowd. Solo grabs Jey’s wrist, and drags him through the crowd and back to the ring. Another Urinage in the ring by Solo, as Roman points to the sky. Solo looks for the Samoan Spike, and Roman looks for the Spear, but Jey avoids the Spear and Roman hits Solo!
Jey recovers in the corner, and hits the Spear to Roman! He covers, and Roman just barely gets his shoulders up. Jey grabs a chair, and swings them into Solo’s back, and then to Roman’s, and then he alternates. Hard chair shot right to the elbow, which looked nasty. Roman is down on the outside, and Jey stalks him with the chair. He goes to hit him again, but here’s Solo with a superkick to the face. Roman asks for his help back to his feet, but Solo is hesitating. He holds his midsection, thinking about the Spear.
They go face to face for a moment, and Jey takes advantage of that moment of distraction by spearing Roman through the barricade. Solo wipes the announce table clear, and brings Jey over for a Urinage, but Jey counters with a superkick. Jey stands on the apron, and hits a Uso Splash, crashing Solo through the table! Jey rolls Roman into the ring, and hits another Spear! He goes to the top rope, and hits the Uso Splash! He makes the cover, but someone in a hood pulls Jey to the outside.
He removes the hood, and it’s Jimmy Uso. Michael Cole sells this betrayal on commentary very well, asking “Are you freaking kidding me?” Jimmy stares at his brother, who is confused, as the crowd chants “Fuck you Jimmy.” Superkick by Jimmy, and he rolls Jey back into the ring. Jimmy leaves, as even Roman is confused. He spears Jey through the corner table, and he gets the 3 off of it to retain the championship.
There’s a lot about this match that I liked, and there’s a lot about it that I didn’t like. I think both guys played their roles very well – with Roman being the overconfident uber heel, and Jey being a great underdog babyface fighting from underneath. Paul Heyman at ringside sold his despair of this all happening, as he repeatedly tried to reason with Jey throughout the match. I think both men showed great facial expressions throughout, even if it at times bordered on excessive. I know the hot term in wrestling these days is “CINEMA,” but there is such thing as overacting.
I thought there were some great nearfalls throughout, and the crowd was really into it from start to finish. That said, I don’t know if I would call this some grand epic. It was a good match overall, but it had its problems, at least to me. My main criticism is that despite all the build coming into this – three years of it – this came off as remarkably tame in terms of intensity. It had the usual table and chair spots, and crowd fighting, but you can find that in any kind of hardcore match these days.
This was also way too long. I think it really peaked around the 17 minute mark, when Jey first hit the Uso Splash for that really good nearfall. From there, it seemed like they were dragging the match out to make it feel epic. Don’t get me wrong, I generally prefer longer matches, but if I can tell it’s being dragged out on purpose, it becomes a huge pet peeve. I generally don’t care for Solo Sikoa. He’s never been anything more to me than an interference heater guy. I say that as someone who doesn’t actively watch WWE, so I could be missing something, but all I get from him in what I’ve seen is “hey, he’s the interference spot guy in every Roman match!” So naturally, I rolled my eyes when he showed up.
Jimmy Uso’s interference, while somewhat predictable, was pulled off well. I liked his facials when staring at Jey. I also enjoyed how it came off as something that even Roman didn’t see coming. Michael Cole should be commended for his commentary during that moment, as he sold his disgust in the turn very well.
Overall, I thought this was good, but it’s not without its flaws. It was way too long and dragged out. It was predictable at times. It lacked intensity. The moves within the ropes were just not up to par with the story coming in. What worked for sure is the character work involved, and that went a long way for me.