WWE Just Accidentally Fell Into a Juicy Storyline

The best pro wrestling stories tend to just pop up organically in the moment, with bonus points if a promotion's proverbial back is against the wall. 

Lo and behold, here comes WWE with a new must-do Oba Femi storyline falling right into the laps of creative. 

By now, fans know the drill. There was an already-infamous "is it real or not?" moment on the latest episode of Raw. 

There, Bronson Reed made his long-anticipated return to get in the mix with some big names and, as the show came to a close, Femi was very not happy about a certain action: 

Speculation ran wild, to say the least. 

Onlookers were right to point out that Femi did this stepping-on-the-defeated-guy thing to Brock Lesnar as part of his major push. Probably not something WWE wants happening to Femi on a random episode of Raw, no matter how hyped the return of Reed might be. 

Unless…this is meant to drive a feud. Because the alternative is Femi actually stopped selling a beatdown momentarily to get a foot off of him. Who would be in the wrong here is pretty hard to say, all things considered. 

And here's the kicker: It doesn't matter. 

This could be a purposeful setup for another silly "WWE Unreal" totally-not-scripted-guys moment and it wouldn't matter. 

What matters is that WWE has another hot storyline now. Before this, there were some questions of how WWE could keep Femi hot through the end of the year and all the way up to next WrestleMania, where a date with Roman Reigns seems to await. 

For now, Femi has been knee-deep in a great feud with Bron Breakker. It's fantastic stuff, really, because it leans so hard into the idea that, due to some untimely injuries and poor booking, Breakker fell out of his "next big thing" spot and Femi swooped in and stole it. 

But Femi-Breakker can't go on forever, assuming it continues and whatnot. Setting up Reed as his next opponent is a no-brainer because it's a must-see matchup and, really, Reed isn't going to take a lot of damage in a loss while undoubtedly looking good the whole time. His looking strong against Femi would, in a way, sort of be giving him a rub from Lesnar, too. 

All that was missing was a compelling reason for Reed and Femi to feud. WWE could have been lazy (and maybe was on track before a real stepping-on incident?) and just done "big guys fight now" sort of thing between the two. But this is so much better. 

How often do wrestlers get this sort of real heat these days? That blurred-lines stuff? Many attempts fail. Remember The Rock and Roman Reigns randomly complaining about insults hurled at a family tree? Silly. 

The real heat these days is hard to judge. It's why, given the historical context, so much of CM Punk's stuff since he returned is classic. That blood feud with Drew McIntyre? They really hate each other, right? Seth Rollins? Kevin Owens' well-known distaste for him? Hard to get a read on. 

So here we are. Did Femi really take issue with what Reed did, something that only Lesnar has been able to do? Or did Reed go into business for himself? Are people backstage really mad at one guy or the other over this, and how will it impact their future plans?

The reality? Easy money is on WWE scripting this and trying to sell the idea that Femi was still pridefully fighting with whatever he had left. But the overreactions left and right to this whole thing have made it so much more than they intended. 

So much so, in fact, that we might've just been heading for tag matches and faction wars. Instead, WWE needs to correct course for a banger of a main-event feud between two fast-risers. 

Good problem to have, that. Femi and Reed now have real-heat beef that fans can't get enough of, which means the promos and meetings and matches will heat up what could have otherwise been a pretty quiet part of the pro wrestling calendar to close the year.