On the latest episode of What Were They Thinking? podcast available on Sportskeeda’s Backstage Pass, the trio of JBL, Brisco, and Joe Lowry talked about the time Rikishi claimed to have run over Stone Cold Steve Austin for The Rock at Survivor Series 1999.

Rikishi famously uttered the line “I did it for The Rock” in a segment on WWE RAW about a year later. JBL jokingly said anybody would have done it for The People’s Champion, considering he was one of the most popular people on the planet.

“Think about it. The Rock is the biggest star in the world. Wouldn’t you do it for The Rock too?” JBL said.

Gerald Brisco then hilariously suggested that the segment probably led to the creation of one of the greatest groups and stories in WWE history.

“I guess that was probably the original part of The Bloodline. That was the start of The Bloodline [laughs],” Brisco said.

Watch the full episode of What Were They Thinking? with JBL and Gerald Brisco only on Backstage Pass. Subscribe here.

While Rikishi was the one who ran over Stone Cold Steve Austin in the story, it was actually instructed by Triple H. And in reality, Austin required neck surgery so WWE needed a way to write him off television.

Paul Heyman on the latest chapter of The Bloodline under Triple H

The Bloodline group officially started on July 9, 2021, when Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, and Jimmy Uso reunited as a trio of heels managed by Paul Heyman. However, the story began a year earlier when Reigns returned during the pandemic and turned into a bad guy.

Speaking to Newsweek in August 2024, Heyman opened up about the latest chapter of the story under Triple H. Solo Sikoa is now The Tribal Chief with his own trio of Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Jacob Fatu against Reigns.

“We are now in a new era of the Bloodline story with Roman Reigns as not the champion. How does he correct that? How does he take back the name of The Tribal Chief? Who is The Head of the Table, Solo or Roman Reigns? (…) We have a long road ahead of us. All I can say is, for me, how I see the trajectory of it and the many ways we can go about it, it’s going to be fascinating and will hopefully put our past four years of work to shame,” Heyman said. [H/T: WrestlingInc.]

The Bloodline story remains strong, with Reigns ready to team up with former rival Cody Rhodes to take on Sikoa and Fatu at WWE Bad Blood on October 5 in Atlanta, Georgia.