And what his Main Event Push Reflects About the State of WWE at the time
A shocking moment that no one expected. Jey Uso eliminates John Cena. Everyone’s hands went to their heads and mouths shot open. The winner of the Royal Rumble is… Jey Uso?
This is one of those single moments that stand out in wrestling history, for good and bad. A career tag team wrestler who only a few years ago most fans couldn’t tell apart from his brother, was now going to be the World Champion. And, while Jey had broken out as an incredibly popular singles star by this point no one thought they would pull the trigger, at least not yet. A truly unexpected and shocking moment which is often rare in wrestling nowadays.
Most people found the initial shock exciting but soon after many turned on the decision. This is because there was the longest Rumble-WrestleMania stretch ever to fill with Jey Uso and Gunther building to their fourth match. So, it wasn’t exactly a fresh rivalry and the two didn’t have that much of a complex or deep relationship to explore.
The build saw some highs (Gunther bludgeoning Jimmy Uso in front of Jey) and some lows (Jey squashing Austin Theory and botching a tope in the process). But for a lot of people, the lows were too low and they concluded that “Main Event” Jey Uso just wasn’t built for the top spot. Especially considering the last time he had a world title push. He faced off against Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Championship at Summerslam ‘23 and they had a long, slow, and predictable match.
But for others like me and those who attended shows in person, Jey’s popularity only grew. His entrance and the crowd participation of it became a legitimate draw for fans to attend shows. Once his entrance was over, crowds would demand he run it back so that they can yeet again. During his matches his opponents would get booed and he would get cheered, so it all worked on the screen for the most part.
Jey also is a great character performer in some moments. He comes across as 100% genuine and bleeding passion. Without him The Bloodline storyline is nowhere near as emotionally satisfying or popular. I’m not just talking about his chemistry in segments with Sami Zayn, but how he was the first real victim of Roman Reigns’ Tribal Chief run. Jey being such a likeable and genuine underdog set the tone for that legendary storyline. The “which one are you” promo is one of my favourites ever. Even his promo after winning the Royal Rumble is hard for me not to get emotional watching it. He can convey real emotion, making it jump out the screen. He wears his heart on his sleeve and makes himself vulnerable, so it’s understandable why I and so many other people latched onto him and wanted to see him go all the way to the world title.
Sure, sometimes his matches are stinkers. The aforementioned Reigns match and the WrestleMania 40 match against his brother Jimmy – both big letdowns. His style in the ring is quite loose and even sloppy, not worrying so much about hitting moves fundamentally correctly, instead trying to look cooler and more chill. So, more in-ring focused fans don’t like him. But, I can overlook sloppy moves and bad matches to an extent, as long as the story is strong enough. And it’s not like Jey always has bad matches, usually just in big moments. His previous matches with Gunther are all good and tense. And his intercontinental Championship win over Bron Breakker is amazing. Bron and Jey had the crowd eating from their palms and there’s a nuclear pop when Jey wins.
So, there’s a broad range of reactions to Jey from all different types of wrestling fans. Because of this I can only speak for myself and how this push made me feel. Since I’m one of the people who leans more towards liking Jey, why was I apathetic when he beat Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 41? When he lost the World Title after a brisk 2 month reign why wasn’t I upset?
I’ve narrowed it down to three key reasons. Firstly:
Jey Uso Shouldn’t have won the Royal Rumble
Having Jey win the Rumble was a great moment, but in practice it actually was a disservice to him. Winning the Rumble is rightfully a pretty big deal. Most wrestlers who win it go on to win the World Title at WrestleMania. And, despite it being a match with the appeal of “anyone can win” it’s usually only reserved for true main eventers or people who WWE’s committed to putting in the main event long-term. So, once Jey won, it was clear that he would choose to fight Gunther as they had been feuding for a while already. It was also clear that Jey would finally beat Gunther and win the World Championship.
There was no way they’d have Jey win the Rumble only to have him lose to Gunther for the fourth time in a row. Triple H was clearly trying to do a classic underdog storyline where the babyface loses to this one wrestler over and over, only for him to finally beat him when it matters most. It worked really well with Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville in NXT and well with Jeff Hardy and Triple H (although Jeff didn’t pin Triple H for some reason). But with Jey and Gunther, there was just something missing to really make you doubt whether or not Jey would actually win. This led to there being no tension in the Mania match with Gunther, hurting the match’s quality.
Also, that post-Rumble promo from Jey that I previously mentioned, while great, felt like Jey was celebrating winning the World Title when he wasn’t even the champion. In kayfabe all he had to celebrate was that he got another chance at the World Title, something that he already had a month before the Rumble. I remember watching that promo and being so happy for him because I knew that he’d win at WrestleMania. But I should’ve been feeling that at WrestleMania when he was celebrating with the Championship, not 2 months before. To do an underdog babyface Championship win well, the tension and doubt needs to be stretched and built all the way up until the three count.
There is some responsibility in Jey and Gunther and the match producers because they could’ve put together a more tense match to get me to bite on some false finishes. There have been many matches where I know who’s going to win but the wrestlers are able to convince me for a split second that I was wrong. This never happened in the Jey and Gunther match. It was structured pretty simply and the only shock was Jey winning via submission, but that felt too sudden and quite flat.
Jey Uso Couldn’t Handle the Pressure of the Main Event
Now, I don’t know Jey or his feelings but to me it looked like he struggled to carry the weight of the main event. You can see it now that he’s no longer in the spotlight of main event storylines he’s able to have better promo performances like his recent ones with CM Punk in the build to Punk vs Reigns. Compare that to Jey’s other promos with Punk when building to Punk vs Jey. He seemed to freeze. Punk tees him up well and Jey fails to say anything meaningful at all. Like his mind drew a blank. Instead he stalls for a while before resorting to his catchphrase for an easy pop.
There’s also a backstage moment after Jey wins the World Title where he falls to his knees in the corner, seemingly hyperventilating. I think it’s a really powerful moment. He could be crying from joy, but it also seems like a panic attack, trying to process this massive moment. Wondering if he did a good job. If he deserves it. If people still like him.
Think of all the pressure put on Jey in 2025. There’s that clip from Unreal Season 1 where Triple H tells Jey that he needs to step up because it’s not guaranteed they’ll book him to win the title. Whether real or not, that’s still pretty heavy to hear from the guy in charge. Everyone’s relying on him to knock it out of the park.
I think the pressure of the moment got to Jey. And rewatching his main event push through this lens makes it a lot more emotionally impactful and relatable. He’s on his own in the spotlight now. Jimmy’s not there. It’s just him. And if he fails, it’s all his fault. He starts to overthink what to say during promo segments. His mind’s scattered during matches, not focusing on executing moves well, just trying not to mess up.
WWE gave up on Emotional Storylines in 2025
Thinking more bigger picture, WWE in 2025 told less emotional stories and this is also at fault. Jey got over in the first place with emotional character work. Where did that go in his main event push? Why didn’t we get moments more in the vein of his famous “Which one are you?” promo. Instead they sent him out there to yeet for a minimum 10 minutes and that’s it. I get wanting to give every audience what they paid for but there has to be a balance. Jey shouldn’t just be an entrance. People fell in love with him because of his character’s big heart, the yeet was just the thing to catapult him to the top.
Let’s look at the story WWE told with Jey’s World Heavyweight Championship reign. An established trait of his is his endless loyalty to people. This was the big conflict with Roman, Jey refusing to turn on him despite the abuse. So, when Jey was champion, he still tried to help all his friends in their fights and it ended up costing him the title. After he lost it, this naturally led into Jey getting more icy with his friends, blaming his title loss on them and teasing a heel turn.
While this is an ok story and much better than nothing at all, I feel it’s missing some heart that could’ve helped it leap out the screen and be something that people tune in every week to see. They needed to dig deeper. What did being World Heavyweight Champion mean to Jey? What did it feel like? What was he thinking when he was kneeling in the corner backstage at Mania 41?
If it was pressure and anxiety, then sprinkle a bit of that into his segments. I’m not saying that Jey should have lost matches due to panic attacks or anything like that, just that he should confide in Jimmy that the pressure of the title is getting to him. Maybe he feels a bit of imposter syndrome. Just that little extra something which digs into a deeper emotional core. People love Jey because he’s vulnerable, that’s his strength and it should be leveraged.
Imagine before his title match at WrestleMania, there’s a backstage intro to his entrance similar to Sami Zayn’s at WrestleMania 40. Jimmy Uso finds Jey backstage. Something looks wrong. Jey confesses that he’s scared of losing and letting everyone down. He’s not a main eventer like Roman, he’s just a twin. Jimmy helps him take a deep breath and reassures him that he can never let him down. He’s always got his back. Since day one. Jey nods, walks out into the concourse where fans mob him. He emerges into the crowd and the stadium explodes.
Just little things like that to help build more of a storyline with his reign that has some heart. This way, when he constantly risks his title to help his friends, there’s more of an emotional connection. Jey doesn’t want to disappoint them.
WWE can do storylines and character moments like this as they showed repeatedly with The Bloodline and Cody Rhodes. This treatment isn’t just exclusive to this one long Bloodline story either. The Sami Zayn entrance at WrestleMania 40, Bayley and DMG CTRL, and that one Rhea Ripley social media exclusive promo during her feud with Liv Morgan. Unfortunately, WWE struggle to implement these consistently across the show and find it easier to rely on moments which get surefire pops like catchphrases, entrances, and pull-apart brawls. But these moments aren’t what keep fans coming back and tuning in. It’s fresh, relatable, and personal stories and character moments. Which are something that Jey has proved he can deliver in spades if the direction is good enough.
Was Jey Uso’s Main Event Push a Failure?
No, of course not. Look at the audiences when he comes out. His merch sales. Social media impressions. Fans are still glued to whatever he does. He’s not a Cody, Punk, or Roman type but he’s one of the biggest stars in the company and he’ll always have the crowd paying attention and making noise for him which is more than 99% of wrestlers can say.
WWE tested him out as a World Champion and it was mostly fine. A babyface getting a short title reign isn’t abnormal and is actually a pretty effective way to keep the fans rooting for them long-term. There’s not much WWE could’ve done to get people who dislike Jey to change their minds. But they aren’t a majority and aren’t really WWE’s target audience. He was something fresh in the World Title picture and is now able to seamlessly rotate in and out of multiple divisions.
But it wasn’t as good as it could’ve been. The moment of Jey winning was anticipated by many fans as an all-time feel-good moment but ended up being pretty uneventful and I can’t see it joining the pantheon of babyface victories along with Jeff Hardy, Eddie Guerrero, Daniel Bryan, and Cody Rhodes.
A mixture of Jey’s underperformance and writing that misunderstood his appeal caused Jey’s World Heavyweight Championship reign to underperform its potential. This speaks to a larger issue with WWE post WrestleMania 40, in that it has also underperformed its potential, choosing moments that reliably get short-term impressions instead of investing in heartfelt stories that can compound into long-term investment and success.