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Reading your recent article has compelled me to write this response. Can't really describe it, but felt like I was young again after watching the latest SmackDown. All my worries and problems vanished for a while, as my mind was filled with excitement. Here are four candidates not mentioned in your fifth man article.
Brock Lesnar: With the Vince pardon that's likely coming, sooner rather than later, is now the time for Lesnar to show? Is he really going to get booed for being a name mentioned, or would the roof blow off once his music hits, at the anticipation of the carnage about to ensue before them? Sure, it'll be awkward for a bit, but isn't it more awkward leaving the audience clueless on his status. There has to be respect between Roman and Brock for all those battles.
I don’t think it would be about him getting booed, it’s more about what could potentially come out in the Janel Grant lawsuit. Even if the investigation is dropped, the lawsuit is still ongoing. Plus, Paul Heyman chose Roman over Brock in the past so that would be a hard thing to overlook.
Braun Strowman: The feud with Reed and he's just come back. Not likely but a possibility.
Strowman had a feud with Reed, yes, but not with The Bloodline. This group is about The Bloodline to me, not Reed.
Hikuleo: Mostly unknown by a WWE audience, but fits big v big, and his size should at least get some crowd stir going.
To me it’s just too random of a move at this point. I don’t debut a new talent in this situation, especially since I don’t see a need for Paul Heyman to be the conduit to get a family member to join the OGs. They were aware of Jacob Fatu so they should be aware of him too from a logic standpoint. None of them reached out to him when they knew they couldn’t find a partner so I don’t see why they would now.
Bron Breakker: Did his interaction with Sami get a resolution? I don't remember a firm on camera no, just an exchange without the audio. I could be wrong. Reed is presumably joining them to prove himself further, isn't that sorta his thing as well.
I don’t see it working from a Jey perspective. I could have maybe seen him joining Solo, but it wouldn’t make much sense to me for him to join the OGs.
Seth Rollins: Why would he turn it down now? He'd look like a coward. There's great heat between Rollins and Reed, so why wouldn't they want to exploit that? Reed gave him how many of his finisher after all and took him out. All he has to do is make it clear it's this and then done.
I disagree. He already turned it down and gave very good reasons why he did it. Yes, he doesn’t like Bronson Reed but he doesn’t like Roman either. He can get to Reed on his own, and will tonight. He doesn’t need to join the team. Now, they could do an angle tonight where all of that changes and if it’s not Punk, I could absolutely see it being Rollins. Also remember Rollins has an issue with Punk as well. What if they do an angle where Rollins changes his mind and joins the OGs, only to be destroyed by Solo’s group and then Punk comes to the rescue. That would tick Rollins off even more.
CM Punk: Only thing putting me off this is his last match was in a Cell. Would he really be chomping at the bit to have his first match back be in a War Games Bloodline feud. That's Jacob Fatu level madness. Not sure that fits him. It'd be cool and very much could happen, but not sure if it makes total sense from that perspective. It's only nitpick though.
That is something that they will have to explain and I am sure they will if it happens. Punk wouldn’t want to go into the cage again for sure, but he is also the original Paul Heyman guy so him being the super babyface he would do it for his friend.
It makes even more sense though. They have it be Punk and play it out with Rollins. Maybe Rollins wants the spot now because of Reed, but OG turn him down because he already said no, we got someone else in mind, and you'll find out with everybody else. Once all is said and done at Survivor Series, Rollins can boil up confronting Punk, telling him you know it should have been me. You're stealing my spotlight again. But you turned it down, remember? Smirk face. Heck, that alone can start that feud going for months, which was still being heavily teased last time we saw Punk. A Rollins heel turn could be fun, but are we seeing too many at once, with Owens also doing that recently.
They could go that way as well for sure.
Great work on the site as always. I've got a question for your Q&A section: I'm literally listening to the FMB as I type this, and you're making the case to Eps that Punk is the fifth man for WarGames. You make a sound case but here's what is putting me off: if Punk cared so much about Heyman being taken out by the new Bloodline, would he not have got involved sooner? That incident happened ages ago and Punk hasn't even mentioned it in passing. In what is such nuanced and well-considered storytelling, this seems like a really big plot hole. What say you? And how incredible is it that the standard of WWE storylines means we nitpick like this?
I don’t see it as a plot hole at all. Punk had his hands more than full with Drew McIntyre when that all went down. He had to put all of his focus on Drew because that is how intense their feud was. And yes, it’s awesome that not only can we nitpick but also that we can make good cases for multiple people filling the spot.
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