That Time a 2021 Smackdown Predicted the Future
I did a weird thing this morning. Instead of doomscrolling through wrestling Twitter, I fired up an old podcast from the archives. A Wade Keller post-show from this very week back in 2021. Five years ago. It’s a digital time capsule. Roman Reigns was the Tribal Chief, sure, but he felt more like a final boss than the patriarch of a Shakespearean tragedy. And listening to them break down that episode of Smackdown was an absolute trip. It turns out that random Friday night in May was less of a standalone show and more of a crystal ball showing us the blueprint for the next half-decade of WWE.
The hosts were dissecting three main threads: the first real crack in the Bloodline, the wholesome father-son adventures of Rey and Dominik Mysterio, and the simmering power struggle between Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville. Two of those storylines would go on to define this entire era of wrestling. The other one… well, we’ll get to that.
The First Domino in the Bloodline Saga
The main event of the podcast discussion was Jimmy Uso’s return. He’d been on the shelf for a year, and in his absence, his brother Jey had been systematically broken down and assimilated into Roman’s cult of personality. Roman, flanked by Jey and Paul Heyman, stood in the ring demanding fealty. And Jimmy, fresh-faced and not yet beaten down by the weight of the family business, basically said, "Nah, I’m good." He told Roman he wouldn’t be his “bitch.” It was electric.
Listening back, Keller and his co-host treated it as the next logical step in establishing Roman’s dominance. And it was! But it was so, so much more. That single moment of defiance from Jimmy wasn’t just a one-week angle. It was the first loose thread in the tightly woven fabric of The Bloodline. It was the inciting incident. Without that moment of doubt from Jimmy, the story doesn’t have the same tension. Jey’s eventual rebellion doesn’t hit as hard. The entire Sami Zayn saga, which hinged on an outsider finding a family only to see its cracks firsthand, loses its foundation.
Think about the chain reaction from that one standoff. Jimmy’s hesitation led to months of family drama, which pulled in The Rock, which set the stage for Cody Rhodes to challenge not just a champion, but an entire dynasty. We’re sitting here in 2026, and the fallout from that faction is *still* the hottest thing going. Back in May 2021, it was just a great segment. Now, with five years of hindsight, you realize it was the pilot episode of the best drama on television.
When Dominik Mysterio Was a Babyface (Seriously)
The next thing that sent me reeling was the discussion about Rey and Dominik. Five years ago, they were the most wholesome act in wrestling. They were about to become the first father-son tag team champions in WWE history. Rey was the proud, legendary dad, and Dom was the eager, slightly-goofy kid just trying to live up to the mask. The podcast was talking about their chemistry, Dom’s potential, and the feel-good nature of it all. It’s hilarious, and a little tragic, to hear now.
Because we know what happened. We know that this earnest kid would eventually morph into “Dirty Dom,” the most insufferable, heat-seeking-missile of a heel we’ve seen in a generation. The turn at Clash at the Castle in 2022 felt shocking, but looking back at the 2021 dynamic, it was inevitable. The entire babyface run was built on Dom living in Rey’s shadow. Every promo was about Rey’s legacy. Every match was about making his father proud. Of course the kid snapped.
It’s a masterclass in long-term character development. The very thing that made you cheer for him in 2021 is the reason you want to see him get speared through a barricade in 2026. He took all that wholesome energy and curdled it into a weapon. He went from being Rey Mysterio's son to the guy who wishes Eddie Guerrero was his real father. That’s a level of psychological warfare you can’t just cook up overnight. It took years of smiling and waving to build up the resentment that fuels The Judgment Day’s little chaos agent. The podcast hosts in 2021 saw a future tag team champion; they had no idea they were watching the villain origin story for the decade.
The Mid-Card Storyline That Time Forgot
And then there was the third angle: the power struggle between Sonya Deville and Adam Pearce. Remember this? Sonya, in her power suit, was making Pearce’s life miserable, abusing her authority, and generally being a fantastic on-screen antagonist. It felt important. It was a constant, running thread on Smackdown for the better part of a year. The hosts spent a good 20 minutes on it. They speculated on the endgame, a potential match between them, or how Sonya would get her comeuppance.
And the payoff was… fine? She had a feud with Naomi where she stacked the deck, then Pearce eventually fired her from her official role and she just went back to being a regular wrestler. It wasn’t bad, but it fizzled. It’s the perfect example of WWE’s booking strategy: throw a hundred darts at the board. Two of them might be generational stories like The Bloodline and Dirty Dom. A whole bunch of others will be solid mid-card angles that are entertaining for a while and then just… end. It’s the necessary B-plot that makes the A-plots feel so massive.
Listening to the 2021 analysis, you’d think the Deville/Pearce story was on par with the others. But time is the ultimate editor. It trims the fat. And this storyline, while effective in the moment, was ultimately just fat. It’s a crucial reminder that not everything that feels important in the weekly churn of television will end up in the history books.
So yeah, that trip in the time machine was illuminating. A single episode of Smackdown, five years removed, contained the seeds of a dynasty, the birth of a top-tier villain, and a lesson in how even the most promising stories can sometimes just fade away. It makes you watch the product differently, scanning for that one little moment of defiance or that overly-sweet smile, wondering if you’re seeing the beginning of the next great five-year plan.
