Smackdown 2/24/23 Part 2
The Brothers
As Bray Wyatt approached Solo stepped in front of me. Jimmy then turned to stand shoulder to shoulder with his brother. I had to stand on my tippy toes to see over their shoulders. Bray just smiled as he got to us. He looked to Jimmy and to Solo both of whom were glaring at him. When Bray made eye contact with me, I stepped up.
"Guys, it's okay," I told them putting my hands on their shoulders to try and separate them but they wouldn't move.
"We aren't moving, state your business," Jimmy said. Bray held up my Women's Championship. I'd dropped it at the interview area when I took my first swing at Sonya. I went to reach over the brothers for it but Solo quickly grabbed it. I narrowed my eyes at Solo for being rude.
"Thanks Bray, sorry about these two," I said.
"No problem, I'd be the same way," he said and his words just caused the tension to grow. "I just wanted to return the belt to you and say nice statement out there."
"Thank you," I replied.
"My segment is next," he said. He again glanced between Jimmy and Solo. "Tell Roman I said hello, and remember what I said before trying to control it makes yourself more uncontrollable," he stated then walked away. No one moved until Bray disappeared behind the curtain into gorilla.
"What the hell was that all about, Uce?" Jimmy questioned to Solo.
"You really didn't have anything to worry about, we've talked before," I told them.
"What?" Solo asked.
"We've been talking, he just gave me some advice," I explained.
"Does Roman know?" Jey asked.
"Yes," I answered reaching for my title from Solo.
"How come we don't know?" he questioned and I could see it upset him a bit.
"I don't know it never came up but now you know," I said and before anyone else spoke a camera guy popped up. He asked us to walk down the hallway discussing what happened out there and we'd have a run in with Dominik Mysterio, who was here to confront his father, Rey. I was about done with the segments for tonight. We started walking and Jimmy was trying to tell me to calm down again. I was still pissed about what happened with Sonya. Solo was quiet but he looked pissed and I don't think he had to try to be that way.
"These women need to realize I'm not playing games anymore," I stated.
"Just chill, you aren't even cleared to fight, The Tribal Chief is going to be upset," Jimmy said just as Dominik came around the corner, we all stopped and stared at each other.
"You may have that title but my Mami runs this division not you, you'll find out soon," he snarled at me. Then got a little nervous looking at Jimmy and Solo giving him death glares. I laughed at Dominik.
"When I put everyone on notice, that included her, now unless you want to go back to your Mami looking a hell of a lot different than you do now, I'd move along little boy," I sneered.
"You're lucky I have somewhere to be, otherwise you'd regret saying that," Dominik half heartly threatened.
"Go ahead, make my day, it didn't end well for the last person who got in my face."
"I'm telling Mami," he said huffing then walking away.
"Crazy kid," I said and then the camera guy cut.
"Thanks, that was great," he said then walked away.
"Come on, let's get to the locker room, you still have some business to handle," I said to Jimmy, he nodded and we continued on. A few minutes later we got to the room but Paul was pacing outside the door and he looked nervous, which was never a good sign.
"Oh, thank God," he said stopping when he saw us.
"What's up, Uce?" Jimmy asked him.
"The Tribal Chief is not very happy, he said if one more segment happened that he didn't approve of he...well.... it's not going to be good," Paul said stuttering.
"Jey still in there?" Jimmy spoke before I could.
"No, he left about ten minutes ago, said he had to get focused," Paul explained. I saw the worry glimmering briefly across Jimmy's eyes.
"Everything is going to be okay," I said to him, but he could only just slightly nod at me.
"Should we all go in or just me?" I asked Paul.
"I'm going to go get ready," Jimmy quickly said then turned and walked away. I wanted to go after him but I knew I had to go talk to Roman.
"Solo please go with him, I swear I'll stay with Roman. I just don't want him to be alone," I said. He stared at me and then turned to walk away.
"You want me to go in with you?" Paul asked.
"No, I got this," I said. I saw the relief come over Paul's face.
"I'm going to check on Jey," he said then as fast as he could move left and I was alone in the hallway. I took a deep breath and walked into the room. Roman's head snapped in my direction as he stopped pacing when he heard me enter. He crossed his arms and almost was glaring at me as I shut the door behind me. I faced him again then approached.
"Hey, I was following the plan then she just had to get in my face and open her big mouth," I defended myself.
"Are you cleared to fight?" he asked.
"No, I'm not...," I said.
"Then why would you do that?" he asked not letting me finish.
"What was I supposed to do, just say okay and walk away. Chief I told you someone would make a comment like that when we told the world we were together. I told you I wouldn't let it go, when it did happen. Besides, it's WrestleMania season everything should be bigger and every impression counts right?" I asked. Roman sighed then unfolded his arm and put his hands on my shoulders.
"But you got to make it to Mania in one piece. Making statements and impressions are important but not at the expense of causing more injures," he said.
"I'm sorry if I scared you Chief and I hear what your saying, but if I let her go with saying that everything that I just went through with Shayna would have been for nothing," I explained. Roman pulled me to his chest and I wrapped my arms around him.
"Believe me, I get it, I understand trying to get out of the shadow or character you used to be and trying to show the world your true self but Wildfire I need you to be safe while you do it."
"I swear I'm trying my best Chief," I told him. He hugged me tighter before he stepped back.
"Are you hurt?" he asked.
"No, I mean doing my finisher hurt but I'm alright," I said.
"Do you need to see a trainer?" he asked being so over protective and I made sure not to roll my eyes.
"No, I'm good, I'm more worried about the next segment with Jimmy and Jey," I told him.
"Speaking of which where is everyone else?" he wondered.
"Well Jimmy went to get ready for his segment and I didn't really like the look on his face so I asked Solo to stay with him. I don't know what you did to Paul but he looked like he was going to pass out if I asked him to come back in here with me, so he went to find Jey and check on him."
"I may have been pissed when your segment wasn't going to plan, Paul may have gotten the worst of it," he said.
"I assure you no one was more pissed than I was. I also should probably tell you after we came back in from gorilla one of the creative guys got in my face and I may have grabbed him....and called him names," I nervously explained.
"Brair," Roman sighed.
"I know, I know, but I was fuming about what went down and seriously if the guy has seen anything I've done he should have known getting in my face when I'm pissed isn't the best idea. And he was yelling at me about how my segment didn't go according to plan, really, like I had control over that, like I told Sonya to get in my face and say that shit, my god I have half a mind to go find him again," I said clenching my teeth and feeling my feet turning for the door. Roman's tattooed Samoan arm wrapped around me. He picked me up off the floor with one hand and carried me over to the couch and sat down pulling me on his lap. They were showing Jimmy heading out for the ring as he was next.
"We aren't going anywhere we are going to sit here and watch your brothers," he said. I took a deep breath to calm down we were silent for a minute before I realized I still had something else to tell him.
"Roman, there's still something else I should tell you," I said.
"That's it, you aren't going anywhere else without me," he said immediately after I opened my mouth.
"Bray Wyatt was coming into gorilla as we had just left," I said and I felt him tense.
"I'm assuming your brothers don't know you've been talking to him," he answered.
"That's right, and even though I told them it was okay, they wouldn't let me near him. I'd dropped my title in the interview area when Sonya came up and he returned it to me. He also told me to tell you hi," I said.
"Anything else I should know?" he asked choosing not to make any comment about Bray.
"No just after that happened, they asked me to do an impromptu interaction with Dominik."
"I saw it," he said. I saw his jaw tense but he didn't say anything else.
"You know this business well, sometimes no matter how well we plan, things are constantly changing around here," I spoke then leaned my head into the crook of his neck and looked at the TV as Smackdown came back from its last commercial break and out comes Jimmy. I knew where both Jimmy and Jey stood but having to watch this for storyline purposes was hard.
Jimmy just looked so upset and I knew there was still some issues he had with Jey about disappearing like he did. He got in the ring, went right for a mic, and waited for the music to stop.
"So, if you're not here I know you're out there watching somewhere," he started saying and he looked like he was getting choked up. "From brother to brother I know your torn, I know your hurting, I know. When you hurt, I hurt Uce but I just want to tell you I will always, always be here for you no matter what. I'm always here for you Uce, just like I need you to be here for me, right, right now," he said and I was gripping Roman's hand tightly. I was telling myself I wasn't going to cry as I couldn't take my eyes off Jimmy. "There's talk, people saying there's cracks in The Bloodline. Now listen I know there's issues going on, everything's been crazy, we've got a Sami Zayn problem, we've got a Kevin Owen's problem, me and you need to defend these tag team championships, and on top of that I know you have issues with the Tribal Chief, and I can't do this alone," he said. And the crowd made noise and through the crowd dressed in black jumping the barricade is Sami Zayn. He gets in the ring and him and Jimmy stare each other down. I felt my blood start to boil again.
"That bastard, what the hell is he doing here, I'm going out there!" I yelled and I was pulled right back to Roman's chest when I tried to get up.
"YOU AREN'T GOING ANYHWERE!" he very clearly stated yelling at me. I sighed loudly but didn't fight him on it, yet.
"I'm not here to fight," Sami says to Jimmy and just his voice made me want to punch something. "I'm not here to fight, I know you want to talk to Jey, trust me I'd like to talk to him to, but right now I need to talk to you. Cause every time I hear you use that word brother that breaks my heart man cause that's what you were to me. You were my dog man remember that, we were dogs, you had my back in The Bloodline from day one. When Jey Uso didn't trust me, you did. When Paul Heyman saw no value in me and shooed me from Roman's locker room, you saw value in me. You were the one who made me the honorary Uce, remember that. Without you there's no honorary Uce there's no Sami Uso, there's no feeling Ucey," he ranted on and the crowd started chanting Ucey. "But when things went south at the Royal Rumble you didn't even think twice you took me down with zero hesitation. Jimmy, I have to let you know man, that that hurt, THAT HURT!" Sami yelled. Jimmy looked pissed and I could see the anger growing deeper on his face as he stared a whole into Sami. Sami stared back in almost disbelief at the glare he was getting from Jimmy.
"Roman I really want to go out there," I said still in trance staring at the TV.
"No, you've done enough tonight, this is the brothers thing," he said.
"You're so damn selfish," Jimmy finally spoke. "You brush it off like things going south at the Rumble was nothing. You want to blame me; you want to put the blame on me. It was YOU, you're the one that made that choice. You had that chair in your hand, you're the one that pulled the trigger. You're the one that made the choice. You stepped on me and you stepped on Jey," he snarled. I wrapped my arms around roman's shoulder and leaned my head against the side of his as we watched on. "What was I supposed to do, huh? Listen you made the choice and I did what I had to do. You think hitting Briar was going to sit well with anyone. You say I acted with zero hesitation, you're damn right. The second that chair touched her it was all over for you. I was protecting my family that's what family do but you know what family don't do Uce? They don't betray you. Brair was right what she said earlier you are pathetic Sami, just pathetic. Trying to brush off what you've done to her what you've doing to her is nothing."
"Let me tell you what else family don't do," Sami said stepping in and cutting Jimmy off. "They don't make you test your loyalty every single week. They don't make you jump through hoops just to prove your worth something. They don't manipulate you every single week like Roman Reigns did to me. The way Roman Reigns has done to your twin. That's what he did, not for weeks not for months, for years. Now Briar is here and you're all head over heels for her, gave her no hesitations no hoops. Maybe she is the real problem, it all went downhill for us when she joined the group," Sami was saying but the crowd was yelling and looking up. The camera panned out and standing in the crowd at the top of the stairs of one of the sections was Jey. I was clenching my fist at Sami's words about me. Sami focused back on Jimmy.
"Bair and The Bloodline is a disease that needs to end. Roman Reigns is not the be all end all. I'm going to make sure if it's the last thing I do that Roman Reigns and The Bloodline comes crumbling down. But there's a way out for you okay just like I told Jey there's a way out for you, you don't have to go down with the ship. And I'm looking in your eyes and I know, I know you know what I'm saying is true and Briar can...," Sami was saying as he looked up to where Jey was before Jimmy punched Sami in the face. Jimmy started beating down Sami then looking back as Jey was making his way down the stairs to the ring.
As Jimmy went over to the corner to yell at Jey to hurry and get in the ring to help him it gave Sami enough time to recover. When Jimmy turned around it was a Helluva kick he received. Jey stood just on the other side of the barricade holding the tag titles and just watched on staring after Sami. Sami quickly gets out of the ring as Solo arrives in the ring. Sami exits into the crowd just off the side of where Jey is standing. The show ends with all four of them staring at each other.
"This is going to end the right way, isn't it?" I asked. Roman patted my arm.
"Of course, when the moment is right, the family will be back together on screen," he said and I only felt somewhat better about it. "Brair, I know you worry, but I assure you this is just for TV you know the family isn't going anywhere."
"I know, can I go meet them in gorilla?" I asked.
"No, we'll wait right here for them," he said.
"Fine, I'm going to get my stuff together. Can I get up?" I asked.
"Are you calm?"
"As calm as I can be for right now," I answered. He loosened his grip so I could get up. I leaned in to kiss his cheek then got up and went to gather my stuff. Once that happened, I stood by the door pacing as I waited for them to come back.
"What can I do to help you calm down?" Roman asked. I knew he knew I wasn't all that calm when he asked me earlier.
"I'm calm," I said. He raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms still not convinced I was telling him the truth. "I promise I'm calm I just want the family to come back," I said honestly. He walked around the couch and came over. He put his arms around me and he leaned back against the couch.
"They'll be back shorty," he assured. We stood there together in that position waiting not taking my eyes off the door. It was only a few minutes but it felt way longer when the door opened. Jimmy and Jey entered followed by Solo and Paul behind them. Once they all entered, they stopped to stare at us.
"Alright, go ahead," Roman said letting me go. I moved forward and I threw my arms around both Jey and Jimmy. They didn't hesitate to pull me into a tight hug.
"You know it's all good Little Uce, Jey and I are good," Jimmy said and I just hugged them tighter.
"He's right, we rarely get to be on the on outs with each other on TV so we enjoy it when we get the chance. The Bloodline, the family has never been stronger and soon the world will see it too," Jey said.
"Okay, okay," I answered pulling away, finally hearing it clearly in my head and my heart.