Bronson Reed says he put his foot on Oba Femi because that is what the top man does, and that Femi shoving it off tells you the two of them think the same way.
The moment came on the September 7 Raw in Birmingham. Femi came out to help Otis and Akira Tozawa against The Vision and was overwhelmed, taking multiple spears from Bron Breakker and multiple Tsunamis from Reed. Reed then stood over him with a foot on his back, and Femi immediately knocked it away. Speaking to The West Australian, Reed did not treat it as a problem.
“I think you got to remember, like, I am the top dog. I’m always going to assert dominance, and that’s what I would try to do, and he’s very much the same,” Reed said. “That’s why he obviously hit my foot off. So if people have speculation about these things, then go for it, speculate. But of course both of us want to be number one, and we’re going to do whatever it takes to be number one.”
The speculation he is inviting has a basis. WrestleVotes Radio, via Fightful Select, reported that Femi brushing the foot away was not in the script and caught people backstage by surprise, that several noticed it, and that some were unhappy about it.
The part of that report worth holding onto is what the sources did not know. Fightful said it was unclear whether Reed putting his foot on Femi in the first place was scripted either. So it is not established who, if anyone, went off book, and coverage since has been unable to say whether the backstage frustration was aimed at Reed, at Femi, or at both. There has been no indication of any disciplinary action, and Femi has stayed in a prominent position on Raw.
The clip travelled and the argument about it split in the predictable way. One reading is that Femi broke character and cost the group its closing image. The other is that a wrestler presented as unconquerable does not lie still while somebody stands on him, and that staying in character is exactly what he did. Neither side of that has any more information than the other.
Femi has done the same spot from the other side without incident. During his WrestleMania feud with Brock Lesnar in March, Lesnar asked him to put a foot on him after laying him out, a moment that did a good deal for Femi’s standing and earned Lesnar credit for offering it.
Reed had been out around six months before returning at Sunday Night’s Main Event on September 6 in Atlanta, attacking Femi with a chair during his match with Breakker and causing a disqualification. Logan Paul, Austin Theory and Maxxine Dupri had all already got involved in that match before Reed came out, and Reed hit Femi with four Tsunamis after the bell before officials broke it up. He hit him again the following night. He said the target picked itself.
“While I was away for those six months, I made sure to watch Monday nights, every single week, and I saw the rise of Oba Femi, and how much he’s become a big part of WWE, and is one of the mainstays now,” Reed said.
“I think you should always be gunning for the top spot,” he added. “So if that’s what has happened in these last six months, that’s who I’m targeting.”
He put it more plainly elsewhere after Raw, saying this is the era of Oba Femi and that Femi is unbeatable, and to wait until he beats him.
Reed gave the interview in Melbourne, where he is attending the San Francisco 49ers game against the Los Angeles Rams while the rest of the main roster is on the South American tour.
