High praise onto Solo Sikoa from Paul Heyman.
The storyline over the Ula Fala wrapped with Roman Reigns besting Solo Sikoa in a Tribal Combat match on the debut of Monday Night Raw on Netflix. Paul Heyman spoke about Sikoa’s direction on WWE programming post-Ula Fala while being interviewed on SHAK Wrestling.
Heyman expressed his opinion that Sikoa is the single most improved performer over the last year. He feels Sikoa carried SmackDown as an antagonist and stated that there is a case for Sikoa to be the most improved performer ever over a one-year time frame. Heyman said throughout that period, he never read or heard about Sikoa having a bad match.
I think Solo Sikoa was the single most improved performer in WWE from WrestleMania 40 through this week right now and I am so proud of what he accomplished in that time and I would dare say if you look back a few years from now with the year that he had and carrying that side of SmackDown, that it wasn’t only the most improved performer of the past year, that he is perhaps, in a one-year span, the most improved performer over a one-year span ever and here’s why: He went from a stoic mute, to being someone that can carry his end of the microphone against anybody that he wanted to including me, including Roman Reigns, including anybody that stepped up against him on that microphone. Solo Sikoa held his own and I did not hear of, witness or read about — even on the cynical internet — I did not hear, I did not read a report, I have no knowledge of a bad match that he had over the course of the past year. So he delivered in the ring, he delivered on the mic, he carried SmackDown from an antagonist position on the mic and even after I was gone, still carried his end of it and then held his own against Roman on the mic as well. I dare anybody to step up from being a stoic mute into that immediately and then have a year like that, let alone have an entire year to get ready for that position. If I’m inside the head and the soul and the spirit of Solo Sikoa and I’m anything less than ecstatic, then it’s a bad assessment of where that man’s head should be. He should be walking around with his chest puffed out, his shoulders cannonball wide and pride written all over his face.
Heyman is going to be a part of the night one WrestleMania 41 main event. He’ll be cornering CM Punk for his Triple Threat against Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns.
Heyman broke the news to Punk live on SmackDown that he was going to be headlining WrestleMania and Heyman said he could not imagine anyone else relaying that news to Punk.
Everything (Heyman responded when asked what it meant to tell CM Punk he is headlining WrestleMania). I couldn’t imagine anyone else telling him. This was a dream of ours when I ended up developing talent in OVW in 2005 and he was sent to OVW and I was told to fire him and I refused to do it and the reason why I refused to do it was just like when I met Steve Austin in WCW in 1991 and I told everybody he was going to be the future of the industry. I told everybody, ‘CM Punk is going to main event WrestleMania. He’s a first ballot Hall of Famer. This guy’s going to the top of the industry. He’s gonna disrupt the status quo’ and they didn’t see it and that’s not credit to me for seeing it. It’s discredit to everyone else for not.
There was a segment to close Monday Night Raw featuring Heyman, Rollins, Reigns and Punk. To get a recap of their WrestleMania go-home segment, check out POST Wrestling’s review of the show.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit SHAK Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
