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When Jey Uso lost the IC Title to Bron Breakker 28 days into his title run, WWE fans just had to know the elder statesman of The Bloodline, Rikishi, would have something to say on the matter.
The biggest fan of the “Yeet Man” maybe on earth, Rikishi banged the table for him to win the belt, celebrated the victory like it was his own, and broke down how he hoped to see the run shake out on his Off The Top podcast, but when Breakker recaptured the strap? Oh, you'd best believe Rikishi had a take on that, too, and needless to say, he wasn't too pleased with how things shook out.
“I thought it was too soon. Too soon. If I'm the promoter, and I'm gonna speak business-wise, yes, finally Jey had gotten his flowers with the belt, rightfully earned and deserving. Now, okay, we got it on this kid, he's well over, you got so much you can see now. This character, this ‘YEET' man, it is through the roof as far as notoriety. Probably selling the number one hottest merchandise, if not close to [Roman Reigns], maybe he's surpassed. Now you see the different sides of merchandise, he's got merchandise with every city he goes to, it's like there's a ‘YEET' shirt. So from a marketing standpoint, you're only gonna do even more better good business if you leave that on this kid,” Rikishi declared via Fightful.
“Not saying because he's my boy, not saying that. I'm probably speaking as a promoter now. Because at the end of the day, this is what it's about it, man. It's about numbers, it's about revenues, it's about okay, we build, try to find the right person that's over, the right heel that's over, and let's run the storyline because, at the end of the day, it's that. So for me, I would have protected this character of ‘YEET' a lot longer. ‘YEET's' been around 17 years as far as with a tag team, and he's won over a lot of hearts when he went on the single run.”
Interesting stuff, right? You don't know the half of it, as Rikishi still had plenty more to say.
Rikishi believes Jey Uso, not Bron Breakker, is best for business.
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Turning his attention to the decision to push Breakker with the belt, Rikishi noted he doesn't like the idea, as it might just be too early to give the second-generation Steiner that level of push when he hasn't fully ingratiated himself to the WWE Universe.
“Now Bron, we know where Bron comes from. But wrestling Bron too early, you're not giving me time to get invested into Bron Breakker. I need to watch this kid struggle, watch his growth, his progress, where you're gonna, as a fan, I feel Bron deserves a chance now. Versus a lot of time, back in the day, and I'm not saying this is Bron, but back in the day, they would just rush people. They did it to John Cena, just rushed him, and people just, he was a great guy, but people just booed him and boos him until finally the people fell in love and was invested,” Rikishi noted.
“So that's the case here with Jey. I feel like, from a business standpoint, yeah, maybe it was taken off too early. I wouldn't have done it if I was the guy in charge, if it was my company. But that's just my opinion. Now, we have it on Bron. So okay, where do we go from Bron now? From a business standpoint, is there merchandise being made? What's the sales on this? At the end of the day, I always look at everything that's done in a business standpoint. It has nothing to do with the person himself. I'm looking at the characters. I look at the characters that are out there, and then I look at, okay, what's the revenue?”
Unfortunately for Rikishi, Uso's title run always felt like a vanity run meant more to thank him for his services and add his name to the belt's linage than the beginning of a huge singles push. Fortunately, with The Usos already reunited, it's safe to say Jey Uso will be just fine.
