The Bloodline story weighed in on by Brian Gewirtz.
This weekend, the next chapter in The Bloodline storyline unfolds when Roman Reigns defends the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against former member of the group, Sami Zayn. Former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz weighed in on the storyline during his appearance on Busted Open Radio. Gewirtz feels The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) have been the ‘secret sauce’ of the entire story.
He went on to recall Jimmy and Jey’s main roster debut and early in their tenure with the company, while they were still sporting the face paint, they did a backstage promo and it led to Vince McMahon not wanting them to speak anymore.
Gewirtz shared that he did chat with current WWE writer Ed Koskey recently and joked that it must be nice to get through this storyline without being contacted on a random weekend and then mentioned the request of Randy Orton to be removed from Evolution. The only thing from The Bloodline storyline that did not land for Gewirtz was Heyman using ‘cheap heat’ during the trial of Sami Zayn segment at Raw 30.
Well first of all, I think The Bloodline — this isn’t a controversial statement. I think The Bloodline story is great. I think it’s been one of the greatest ones ever. I had a long chat with our friend Ed Koskey the other day, head writer at WWE and I was like, I didn’t wanna sound jealous or defensive or anything but I was like, ‘Yeah man, must be great to not get a call on the weekend and be like, we’re turning Randy out of Evolution. Law of the jungle pal!’ Law of the jungle. The young lion and the old lion. Like damn, these freaking lions. They’re ruining our long-term storylines. Anyways, I think it’s been great… I’ll say this and it’s not really the secret ingredient because I think everyone is ‘acknowledged’ so to speak, no pun intended. But I really, really, I think the secret sauce has been The Usos and a lot of people don’t even realize. The Usos made their debut, I think it was a pay-per-view in Long Island, Nassau Coliseum, when I think Pat (Patterson) just suggested them and was like, ‘Ah! New sh*t better than old sh*t.’ That kind of thing and they were thrown on without really a plan or a gameplan going in. They did a backstage promo once. Our friend Dave Kapoor produced it and for whatever reason and after they did their promo, the note we got from Vince (McMahon) was, ‘I don’t want these guys talking anymore,’ and that was a tough thing to overcome… Well, it was just one of those days I guess. But, for years, they would come down, they’d do their entrance. Their entrance would be spectacular with the dance and everything. They’d have a great, quote-unquote, good, solid match and they would go to the back and I remember, at the time I think, this was like my post-2012 to 2015 giving feedback thing, going like, ‘They’re great. But once the bell rings, I’m not really invested in them as human beings and characters.’ It’s not like the days we grew up with-with WWE Superstars and Wrestling Challenge. It wasn’t all that important to know the difference between ‘Jumping’ Jim Brunzell and B. Brian Blair. They’re Killer Bees, that’s all you need to know. Brunzell’s got the dropkick. That’s like the defining characteristic trait and it’s really difficult when you’re Jimmy and Jey to be able to, you know, they have to show their personalities on Total Divas but you can’t assume anybody watches that watches the main show and then obviously, slowly but surely, they started to get their personalities out and you know, the rap battle with New Day and there’s a lot of different things you could cite. But once this Bloodline story happened, it isn’t the same without the dynamic of Jimmy and Jey and you know, the crossings of there’s an ally, he’s an enemy. No, he’s an ally. No, he’s an enemy. The dynamic they have with Roman (Reigns). Everything that they’re doing, that’s what I think makes this storyline so special because the stuff with Sami (Zayn) and Roman has been awesome. It’s something very, very universal about acceptance and wanting to fit in with the cool group and wanting to finally ascend and do you leave your old friends behind to join this new group? And all this kind of thing. That’s been awesome and that’s been what’s carrying, essentially, the heart of it so to speak. But, the secret sauce so to speak has really been Jimmy and Jey and I think it’s great… The only thing that didn’t strike me well with The Bloodline storyline and maybe this is a cry to have Paul (Heyman) respond the book (Gewirtz’s book) is that I didn’t think Paul needed to use cheap heat in Philadelphia in the trial of Sami Zayn (at Raw XXX), when he’s doing the stuff about the (Philadelphia) Eagles and the (San Francisco) Niners and all that stuff. I was just like, dude, we’re so invested in this storyline… You don’t need the cheap boos and believe me, I’m the patron saint of cheap heat, I love cheap heat. I use it whenever possible, even outside of wrestling. But then, it was just like, man, you don’t need that. You got this awesome storyline. That’s what you use when you don’t have anything else and need to get a pop of some kind. But I understand. You know, he just did the whole Brock Purdy thing, he’s in Philadelphia. Sometimes, it’s too tempting to pass up but that’s very, very nitpicky obviously. Overall, the storyline’s been awesome.
This week’s Friday Night SmackDown is emanating from Montreal, Quebec, Canada which will host Elimination Chamber the following night.
After both shows, POST Wrestling is going to have reviews uploaded to the site.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Busted Open Radio with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
