It appears that Forgotten Sons leader Jaxson Ryker might be headed to Monday Night Raw with a new gimmick, provided he impresses WWE officials while serving as Elias’ muscle.
As reported by Wrestling Inc. , Ryker was used on this Monday’s tapings for Main Event , where he accompanied Elias to the ring in the show’s opening segment before both men were interrupted by multiple-time 24/7 Champion R-Truth. This marked the first time Ryker was used in a television taping since The Forgotten Sons were removed from Friday Night SmackDown storylines toward the end of May, seemingly in response to controversial comments he made in support of President Donald Trump.
The aforementioned remarks were made shortly after the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd while in the custody of police officers and resulted in several superstars criticizing him on Twitter for what was seen as a poorly-timed tweet.
Separately, Ringside News cited a subscriber-only report from Fightful Select , which suggested that “a lot of people” were surprised by Ryker’s return as Elias’ enforcer. The outlet added this merely represents a “dry run” for the former U.S. Marine and a possible means of “pitching” the new partnership to WWE chairman Vince McMahon. As such, it’s still far from sure whether Ryker will get to perform under his new gimmick as a part of the Raw roster.
The new development comes just a few days after Ryker’s former stablemates, Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake, took on a similar new role as “King” Baron Corbin’s enforcers on Friday Night SmackDown . As reported by The Inquisitr , there was apparently no heat on the duo even at the height of the uproar over their faction leader’s social media posts, given that they had distanced themselves from the controversy.
Ryker, on the other hand, appears to still have heat with company officials, with some people allegedly expecting him to be among the first few people to be released when WWE announces its next round of job cuts. At the time Cutler and Blake were forming an alliance with Corbin, their ex-stablemate was reportedly at home in North Carolina and had not been used in TV tapings since the entire group was taken off the air.
As for Ryker’s new on-screen ally, it appears that Elias might also be getting a bit of a gimmick change in the coming weeks. As speculated by Cageside Seats , the Raw superstar seemed to drop such a tease shortly after he was electrocuted in storyline on the November 30 episode of the red brand’s weekly show.