Jey Uso lost the World Heavyweight Championship, and Rikishi has thoughts.
After 51 days as WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Jey Uso lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Gunther on the June 9 episode of WWE Monday Night Raw on Netflix. Afterward, he gave a heartfelt speech to the audience in attendance.
Jey Uso is one of four members of his family to capture the World Heavyweight Championship in WWE, and his father, Rikishi, was very proud of his son when he won the title at WrestleMania 41. Now, the WWE Hall of Famer is sounding off on his son losing the championship during the latest episode of his Off the Top podcast.
Rikishi isn't mincing words. He believes that the creative staff at WWE failed his son and failed to present him as a credible champion. To put it bluntly, he believes that whoever was responsible for his son's presentation should be fired.
"Are we talking about a kid that 16 plus years, that put in work? We talk about a kid that, combined with him and his brother, merchandise sales to the roof as a tag team now breaks off as single competitor. If you can tell me that anybody else is selling any merchandise higher than 'YEET,' I want you to tell me, by all means, generating revenue for the company. What was that saying? 'What's good for business?' Then you have a kid that put his heart and soul, just like everybody else that's out there on the roster, put their heart and soul to get to that main event spot. Finally, when he gets there, you know what I feel? Here's what I feel. I feel that those are writing for this kid his storyline, you didn't do him justice. You didn't feed this champion the right talent to be able to continue to make this champion. Not a fair shot in my eyes.
"So you go 51 days. I say fire those that are writing for this kid here, if you can't come up with something simple to promote and push your champion, that you, not me, you decide to put this kid in that position, and then that's it. All of a sudden, the brains went cloudy. You can't write, you can't think of an angle for Jey? Well, if you can't do your job, I say [best of luck in your future endeavors]. Get the hell out of the way. Put somebody in that position, because the longer you keep the belt on this kid, the longer merchandise sales go through the roof."
Rikishi made it clear that he has no issues with Gunther or anyone on the roster, but he's unhappy with the lack of long-term faith that WWE creative has shown in his son on multiple occasions.
"So now they passed the belt on to Gunther for whatever reason. Hey, I ain't got no beef with Gunther. I ain't got no beef with any of those that are on the roster. I ain't got no beef with that. If I do, I'm going to say it to your face, because that's just the type of man I am. But let me back up. Good luck if that's what your choice is to go that way," he said. "But let me back up and continue my thoughts on my son as far as his run as the World Champion. I didn't think it was just his. I didn't think it was fair. 51 days, that was it. I mean, Intercontinental belt? A short run, that was it. What is it against my boy? Would you have done that to Randy Orton? Would you have done that to John Cena?"
The rest of the episode continued to discuss the contributions that the members of the Bloodline have made to the industry and Rikishi's belief that the family is beneficial for business. Suffice it to say, he's not happy.
In the past, Rikishi has spoken about how vital Roman Reigns has been to not only the family but the wrestling industry. Read his comments on Roman here.
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