The Bloodline at Survivor Series defeated Sheamus, Butch, Ridge Holland, Kevin Owens and Drew McIntyre in the night’s main event. However, rumor has it that “The Tribal Chief” was furious with Owens at the end of that match, over an unplanned phase of the match where Owens slapped him hard in the face, causing an apparent bruise.
According to the rumors above, Reigns was visibly upset by the situation, but WWE executives believed that this episode would not impact their ability to work together and therefore plans for further interaction between Owens and Reigns could have gone ahead. like it actually happened on Raw.
“Real” episode, but that doesn’t change the current plans
WrestlingNews.co first reported on WWE’s plans for Owens and Reigns at the Royal Rumble, as well as long term plans for Bloodline leading up to WrestleMania.
In the latest issue of the Wrestling Observer newsletter, Dave Meltzer shared more details on the situation after speaking to multiple sources. Reigns was angry about the injury and because it was a shot he didn’t know was coming or that he thought made sense in the match.
Meltzer wrote: “Some have said that this crack actually happened; Reigns was furious but almost completely calmed down 20 minutes later. Then he went so far as to say he wasn’t paying proper attention to his actions, so he calmed down, but he didn’t completely walk away from it.”
The journalist then added: “In his opinion, he shouldn’t have taken the liberty of deciding this unplanned moment and he was angry because something happened that he thought shouldn’t have happened to his character, and he also pain. But like I said, it’s not that he was so angry that he wanted to change the existing plans.”
However, the overall feel has been summed up as the classic “things happen”. Meltzer added how Reigns made the “quite personally” decision to work with Owens and Zayn. Of all the people he could work with and build him up on, Reigns had chosen just these two.
Recall that on Monday’s episode of Raw, Owens defeated Jey Uso before “ending” his friendship with Sami Zayn. Further confirmation that this episode hasn’t changed WWE plans in the slightest for the moment.