I have been sitting on this column for a long time. Every time I thought about writing it, I talked myself out of it. Jey Uso is one of the most popular stars in WWE, but after what happened this past Friday on SmackDown, I couldn’t hold back any longer.
It’s time to talk about Jey Uso.
Let me start by saying this about Jey Uso: I have to give him credit for getting over as much as he has. He worked hard to get over, gain the fans’ approval, and became a top merchandise seller in the WWE. I won’t take that away from him.
And if you go back and listen to old episodes of the Hot Tag Wrestling Podcast, I gave Jey Uso his due and praise when the time was right. I was on board with the Jey Uso/Roman Reigns story going into SummerSlam 2023. I was even on board with giving him a win and quick title run then. I was also on board with the Jey/Jimmy story going into Wrestlemania XL. They built it up well going into the show as part of the Bloodline story. Finally, I was even onboard with his Royal Rumble win, again citing his ability to get over and deserve a run at the top with a title.
But there was a common theme in every single one of those instances that now stands out like a sore thumb: Every single one of those matches was a disappointment. Let’s start with the Roman Reigns match at SummerSlam. That match was 36 minutes long. 36 minutes. And a good amount of that was the general verbal acting we were accustomed to seeing during this time period of Roman Reigns matches. It was a slog to get through. Now, you can make the argument that it was Jey’s first big time singles match. And that’s fine. I would listen to that and was willing to accept it.
So that brings us to his Wrestlemania XL match against his brother Jimmy. Jimmy cost Jey his opportunity at the WWE Championship in his match against Roman Reigns. They did a good job of building up this feud leading up to Wrestlemania and everyone thought, including myself, that it would be a sleeper match of the night. Instead it ended up being only 11 minutes and dreadful. You would think these two would have worked something better out beforehand. It was a match that deserved some kind of street fight stipulation and instead was your basic 11 minute no heat match.
And this leads us to Wrestlemania 41, where Jey Uso defeated Gunther to win the World title. Now it is pretty much impossible to have a bad match with Gunther. Jey almost dragged him to one. To be fair, the match was good. However, Jey’s subsequent defenses against Seth Rollins and Logan Paul were subpar, and it became clearer and clearer as time went on that Jey Uso just could not be someone you could trust with a singles title run.
That is three opportunities Jey had to cement himself as a true main-event singles performer. While some fans enjoyed parts of those matches, none of them felt like the career-defining performances WWE was hoping for.
There is already backlash building over Jey Uso getting to the King of the Ring Finals. Jey continues to get chance after chance at proving himself despite not showing any improvement in the ring and coasting on his Bloodline reputation and YEET chant. That is not good enough in today’s world of pro wrestling. Though I guess in WWE’s version of pro wrestling, the moments Jey Uso creates matter more than the quality of the matches themselves.
Jey Uso has become overly reliant on one aspect of his act. The YEET catchphrase gets a tremendous crowd reaction and has made him a lot of money, which is great for him. But once the bell rings, the performances rarely live up to the hype. The crowd participation is undeniably strong, but WWE can only lean on that for so long before fans start asking for more substance between the ropes.
I’m trying to imagine the backlash if Jey Uso ends up beating Oba Femi at Clash of Champions. And honestly, I wouldn’t care if Brock Lesnar helped Jey Uso win. A Brock Lesnar return would be a huge moment, but it wouldn’t change the fact that I’m not interested in seeing Jey Uso back in another world title program.
The prospect of Jey Uso challenging Cody Rhodes doesn’t exactly feel fresh either, especially with portions of the fanbase beginning to push back against both stars. We are well past the point of The Bloodline dominating WWE television, and another major singles push for Jey feels more forced than earned.
Do fans really want to see him continue to get singles opportunities at the expense of others? If WWE cared more about tag team wrestling, Jey and Jimmy Uso could be dominating that division where they are at their best. There is nothing wrong with being a great tag team wrestler. In fact, that’s where Jey has consistently delivered his strongest work.
This tournament was the perfect opportunity to give someone else a rub getting to the Finals. LA Knight is right there. The crowd wants to get behind him, but for some reason Triple H thinks Knight has a ceiling when he is a better all-around performer than Jey even on his worst day. I’m not even the biggest Je’Von Evans fan, but he would have been a more interesting choice. The history between Evans and Oba Femi from NXT could have been played up in the build to this. But no, Jey needs to get to the Finals for some reason so we can keep the Bloodline story going. What inning are we supposedly in now?
The Jey Uso shine is quickly fading. And it isn’t just me as evident by the backlash online from his win this past Friday on Smackdown. Fans are starting to realize that Jey doesn’t have what it takes to be a main event player in the long run. He didn’t deserve to get to the King of the Ring finals. His World title reign flopped and he shouldn’t even be under consideration for another one.
For now we have to hold our breath and hope Triple H does the right thing and books Oba Femi to win. Otherwise, we may be sitting through another Jey Uso title match that relies more on catchphrases and crowd participation than great in-ring wrestling. Keep YEETing all you want, Jey. But at this stage of his career, you feel far more valuable as part of a tag team than as a featured singles main-event attraction.
Let me know on X what you think!
Justin C (@JCWonka)
