The Schmominati storyline was seemingly wrapped up after the debut of Season 9: Reboot. “The Inglorious One” Samm Levine was revealed to be the man behind the mask and the mastermind of an elaborate prank on Andrew Ghai. While some fans were happy with the conclusion and happy to be done with what had dominated the past two years storyline-wise, others felt that there were too many unanswered questions. This is to be expected given the slow buildup, digital era struggles, the pivot towards a competitive focus instead of a story one, and other things that only those behind the scenes know. Yet that the reveal of Samm Levine was a masterful move and does give some logic to the overall story.
At first glance, Levine spending so much time and effort to make Ghai miserable seems out of left field. What bad blood exists between them? Other than one match between Levine’s team Above the Line and Ghai’s Team Action, they haven’t had many interactions on the Schmoedown battlefield. Ghai was a member of The Usual Suspects in Season 7 so Levine managed him for a year, and because of this, you might think they’d have a positive relationship.
But what if Levine’s motives come from within the year that he was Ghai’s manager? The Schmominati first appeared during Season 7, and The Usual Suspects were in the middle of a difficult season. Levine’s first overall pick (and Ghai’s teammate) Drew McWeeny retired after one match, and we discovered later in the season that Ghai had gone down the conspiracy rabbit hole and was believing in the concept of a Schmominati. This turn to what seemed to be insanity appeared to hurt Ghai’s gameplay, and soon after he suffered big losses to his former Team Action partner Ben Bateman and to Deception, the team made up of Adam Collins and Marisol McKee, with his new teammate Ethan Erwin.
Still, something was the catalyst for Levine’s prank. What made him decide to make Ghai’s fear come to life? Was he motivated to make Ghai suffer as much as the Usual Suspects did in Season 7? And if this was just a prank on Ghai, why did Levine get the rest of the league involved? What was the reasoning for starting a takeover plot and putting Grace Hancock in charge? While we may never know the real motives, some theories do exist on why this happened.
It’s possible that Levine blamed KOrruption for their match win over The Family playing a part in why McWeeny retired. Seeing McWeeny frustrated enough with a loss to retire over it must have been hard for Levine. Putting Hancock in charge might have been a way to get back at the faction that not only helped to retire his former teammate but also won the faction title while the Usual Suspects finished towards the bottom of the table. Installing Hancock as the league’s president also could have been because he wanted more power in the decision-making process. Could he have used this prank on Ghai to gain power and influence over Kristian Harloff or did the prank get out of hand? It’s not unrealistic that Levine could have become more and more invested in making this prank as believable as possible to the point that he lost control of it. He just might not have known when to stop.
The extent of Levine’s prank brings up the question of why he didn’t get arrested for kidnapping and brainwashing Ghai. The simple answer to that is that it was just a storyline. But within the context of the storyline, it could be a matter of who would turn him in. There are very few people who know the extent of Levine’s prank.
Could Ghai do it? Hard to say. It’s possible that Ghai still doesn’t know that he’s been brainwashed. What about Hancock? Given her previous interactions in the Schmoedown as part of the Lion’s Den, KOrruption, and The Den, it’s difficult to see that she would be interested in being the moral compass in this situation. She would also possibly be considered an accomplice to the situation and therefore would be turning herself in as well. It’s also unclear after watching the scene that aired during the PPV if she is even aware that it is Levine behind the mask.
As for Harloff, if he were to turn Levine in, then he would lose the return of one of the best competitors the league has seen. Having Levine return to competition is what he is prioritizing. Other than the three mentioned here, there seems to be nobody else familiar enough with the situation to turn Levine in.
What is the explanation for Ghai’s brainwashing? This is by far the toughest aspect to explain as it fits the least with the reveal. How did Levine manage to brainwash Ghai? Hypnotism is a possibility, but the extent to which he was seemingly brainwashed and how he acts now does not line up with the prank explanation. It is possible that the brainwashing is part of a completely different storyline that we only assumed was connected because of the timing. Perhaps a completely unrelated party drove Ghai crazy and brainwashed him. He did make his fair share of enemies during his competitive days. It may be safe to assume that a second storyline is unlikely, but at the moment, a reasonable explanation for the brainwashing does not come to mind.
Is the Schmominati storyline over? It is for now, at least. After two years, a lot of the fans seem tired of this particular storyline, especially because it was deeply flawed and people will associate it with the digital age. With the Schmoedown wanting to move past the digital era, it does make sense that they’d want to finish a storyline so synonymous with that. However, this does not mean the Schmominati will never reappear. There were some interesting aspects of this storyline that could be explored more. But if the Schmoedown ever does decide to revisit this, it will be surprising if it happens any time soon.
In the end, was the Levine reveal a perfect conclusion? Far from it. However, there was no good conclusion at this point. If the storyline was to continue in order to answer all the remaining questions, there would have been several fans disappointed that we were still talking about the Schmominati. Yet other fans seem to be annoyed about how quick the resolution was after a mystery that was built up over such a long period of time.
However, it is smart to move on. The most important aspect was finding a logical conclusion to the story, and the Levine reveal does this. Thematically, the idea that the Schmominati was a prank works better than any other conclusion could have, especially than the alternative that there was a real organization that has always been pulling the strings from behind the scenes.
As time passes, it will be interesting to see how fans look back on this storyline or if the Schmoedown ever decides to take another crack at the concept. But for now, many Schmoedown fans will be sighing in relief because they will most likely not have to think about the Schmominati again.
