Add as a preferred source on Google Solo Sikoa is in the middle of the best run of his main roster career, and he says the groundwork for it was laid during the years he spent saying nothing at all.
Speaking with WWE Now after Night 1 of SummerSlam, Sikoa said he used his two years as a near-silent enforcer in The Bloodline to study how Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman worked on the mic.
“It’s been a long journey, coming from the silent assassin, from not talking for two years to transforming into playing The Tribal Chief character. You got to see a little bit of personality, and then being the leader in The MFTs you’re starting to see a little bit more and then I got to be myself two weeks ago.
A lot of the fans don’t understand, when you’re going from not talking for two years, you’re sitting under the learning tree of one of the greats in Roman Reigns and Paul Heyman.
I would sit there and I would study how he would talk and cut the promos. A lot of people think I’m just not talking, but I was actually learning over this two years. I knew when it became my time to shine, it’s like I’ve been doing it for years.
To feel natural, that’s hard to come across. I didn’t talk for two years. I didn’t know how to talk. But then, after WrestleMania 40 they gave me ‘Alright, now you’re gonna cut a promo.’ I’m nervous man, but I knew all the training and sitting by Roman and Paul Heyman, I was like ‘Man, I got this. This is my time to shine.'”
That comfort level was on display at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, where Sikoa teamed with LA Knight and Royce Keys to beat Jacob Fatu and The Usos on night one. Sikoa spent as much of the match playing to the crowd as he did brawling, at one point calling for Jey Uso’s music so he could run through the Yeet routine himself.
The turnaround comes just over a month after Tama Tonga and Talla Tonga walked out on Sikoa on the June 26 episode of SmackDown, effectively ending MFT. He has worked as a babyface since, leaning on humor and crowd interaction in a way he was never given room for as a heel.
WrestleVotes Radio, via Fightful Select, reported last week that the babyface run was only ever meant to be a short-term move. Sikoa’s reaction over the past several weeks and praise from within WWE creative have led to internal speculation that those plans could change.