WWE’s Night of Champions got off to an entertaining start, but some of the biggest surprises were saved for later in the show. That’s because WWE’s next battle was between two former allies who have become bitter enemies, but that turned out to be far from the biggest story of the match. Not only did WWE crown a new Champion, but the match saw an injured superstar make their return to the ring after months away. The surprises were done either, as right after a big WWE free agent signing made their TV debut, creating a new powerhouse faction in the company.
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The first Championship match of the night was also a blood feud, as Jacob Fatu looked to defend his United States Championship against Solo Sikoa. There’s a lot of history between the two, and you could see that history make its way into the battle at Night of Champions. It was every bit the physical power battle that fans expected, though the crowd was clearly in Jacob’s corner. When it looked like Jacob had the match in hand when a former friend and another member of the Bloodline made his return from injury in Tonga Loa.
It was actually JC Mateo who raced out to the ring first to help Sikoa, but as the referee was distracted by Mateo, a hooded figure ran in and stopped Fatu from getting the win. Loa slammed Fatu to the mat from the top rope, and Sikoa tried to win the match, but somehow Fatu managed to kick out of the pin. That said, Sikoa had one more trick up his sleeve.
Fatu hit the moonsault on Sikoa and went for the pin, but there was no referee to count. Right after that, another mystery figure pulled Fatu out of the ring by his neck, and it was free agent signing Hikuleo. Hikuleo has actually been signed to WWE for a while, but he only just recently made his first appearance in WWE during a dark match ahead of a SmackDown. Now he’s finally on WWE TV and having an impact, and is now aligned with Sikoa.
Hikuleo told Fatu, “You messed up. You had everything,” before grabbing Fatu’s neck and delivering a chokeslam onto the announce table. The group got Fatu back into the ring and Sikoa pinned him, crowning Sikoa as the new WWE United States Champion, and creating another powerhouse faction in WWE for everyone to contend with.
What’s Next?
Now Fatu will have a rejuvenated Sikoa to deal with, and he now has Tonga Loa, JC Mateo, and Hikuleo by his side. It remains to be seen who Tama Tonga aligns with when he returns from injury, as Tama was riding with Fatu in his issues with Sikoa before his injury. If he does return and aligns with Fatu, we could see one more person added to Fatu’s side to deliver some big faction vs faction match-ups, and Jimmy Uso might factor in there as well.
Jacob recently raced out to help Jimmy when he was outnumbered, and Sikoa did target Jimmy at previous times as well, so that might be a possible path for that story. In the meantime, though, Jacob will likely look to get his Title back, but it’s going to be incredibly difficult at this moment, given how outnumbered he is. Hopefully, we’ll get more details on what’s next for all involved on the next SmackDown. You can find the updated results for Night of Champions below.
Night of Champions
- King of the Ring Finals: Cody Rhodes def. Randy Orton
- Street Fight: Rhea Ripley def. Raquel Rodriguez
- Undisputed WWE Championship Match: John Cena (C) vs. CM Punk
- United States Championship Match: Solo Sikoa (C) def. Jacob Fatu
- Queen of the Ring Finals: Asuka vs. Jade Cargill
- Sami Zayn def. Karrion Kross
What did you think of the match, and what do you want to see next for Jacob Fatu? Let us know in the comments, and you can talk all things wrestling with me on Bluesky @knightofoa!
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