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Roman Reigns post-WrestleMania exodus from WWE has seen Solo Sikoa take his place as Head of the Table and in the process he has reformed the stable in his own image after ejecting Jimmy Uso and Paul Heyman from the group since taking over.
The additions to the group have been gradual with Tama Tonga appearing first followed by Tanga Loa and most recently Jacob Fatu. Heyman’s reactions to them before he was ejected from The Bloodline made it clear that these were all family members that Roman Reigns would have never allowed into The Bloodline under his watch because of their unpredictable nature.
While some people may be familiar with the work of Tonga and Loa in NJPW and Fatu in MLW, there’s a lot of people out there that aren’t familiar with their work and don’t know what to expect, so here is a look at the new additions to The Bloodline and what people can expect from them in WWE.
Tama Tonga is primarily known for his work in NJPW where he was a longtime member of heel stable Bullet Club through its various iterations. He formed the Guerrillas Of Destiny Tag Team with his real life adopted brother Tanga Loa. They were a very good tag team, but were often limited by NJPW not putting a whole lot of effort into their heavyweight tag division.
Their fast-paced and explosive offense made them a dangerous unit as members of Bullet Club. Some fans in the U.S. might know them from their sporadic appearances in the U.S. and Canada in Ring of Honor when they feuded with The Briscoe Brothers when ROH and NJPW had a working agreement. G.O.D did some of their best work against the Briscoes while working against them in ROH.
Tonga is the better singles wrestler between him and Loa. He has improved a lot since I first began watching NJPW regularly in 2014. He went from being one of the people I looked least forward to seeing on the roster to a credible in-ring singles wrestler over the span of several years.
Tonga turned face for the end of his NJPW run and while he still had good matches, it is clear that he is best suited to be a heel. Tonga is clearly more comfortable as a heel and shows a lot more charisma in that role as compared to when he’s playing a face. Tonga is not someone I would consider to have main event singles potential, but he could definitely hold his own in a short main event program or a longer undercard program.
Tonga Loa is best suited as a tag team wrestler. WWE fans might remember him from his short stint in WWE on Smackdown as Camacho from 2011-2013. Loa doesn’t have a lot of charisma, but when he’s wrestling with someone with a huge personality like Tonga, he is a very good tag team wrestler that does a good job playing the role of a complementary piece in a tag team or a stable.
Loa will likely be utilized in tag matches for most of his WWE career moving forward. He works better as a supporting player and fills that role well because he is solid in the ring. Loa has more charisma as a heel. He’s very bland as a babyface, so I would expect him to remain a heel for most of his current WWE run.
Jacob Fatu spent most of his career in MLW before being signed by WWE. It was thought for a long time by people I talked to in the past that he would not make it to WWE because he had been arrested and served time in the past for robbery.
During his time primarily wrestling in MLW and the independents, he developed a reputation for his sudden and explosive offense, which were on display when he stole the show during the main event of MITB teaming with Sikoa and Tonga in the main event against Cody Rhodes & Kevin Owens & Randy Orton.
Fatu has a way of making his attacks look sudden and savage. On the other side of the coin, he can also perform insane high-flying maneuvers. We have seen Fatu’s sudden offense and high-flying on TV and at PLE, but the crazy thing people might not know is that he did all of what he’s done in WWE so far while wrestling barefoot in MLW and on the indies.
Fatu looks to be a future main event talent in WWE. He is impossible not to pay attention to in the ring with his charisma and explosive offense. It is clear his ceiling is higher than Solo Sikoa’s right now, so it will be interesting to see how his ascent to the top of the WWE roster plays out in the future.
Fans new to Tonga, Loa, and Fatu have a lot to look forward to in the coming months, as Sikoa has rebuilt The Bloodline in incredible fashion. It is going to be a lot of fun to see the storylines play out when Roman Reigns eventually makes his return to feud with the group, especially if they end up doing a civil war storyline with Roman taking his version of The Bloodline against the new version built by Solo Sikoa.
Contact PWTorch columnist Sean Radiacn at pwtorchsean@gmail.com
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