When Jey Uso won the Royal Rumble at the start of the year, I wrote that it was a surprising choice, but not a bad decision. Ironically, the same can be said about the decision for him to drop the title back to Gunther this past week on Raw, as it was surprising, but not necessarily the wrong decision.
Still, does this stall the momentum that Jey had as one of the most over performers on the entire roster?
When discussing Uso’s Rumble victory earlier this year, I mentioned that given the nature of his journey to the title, a path that took him from just a tag team wrestler to a star that the audience spontaneously and organically rallied behind, the downside of a possible title win was that the money might be in the chase, not the reign as champion.
When you take into account that Jey had the belt for less than two months, it’s tough to argue with that notion.
Don’t get me wrong, Jey was and still is one of the most popular performers on the WWE roster, a position that not many would’ve guessed he would be if the prospects of his success were asked just a few years ago. That being said, the most over portion of his total act is probably still the entrance. He’s not terrible in the ring, but he’s not Lou Thez either. He’s more of a storytelling performer and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but the problem is that the vast majority of that story was based on his chase to become the champion, not his reign as champion. In the role of the titleholder, there’s only so many ways to try to make someone look like the underdog, as there’s a natural “champion’s advantage” based on the traditional rules of the ring. For example, the belt can’t change hands on a count out or a disqualification. It might sound trivial, but who the champion is definitely affects the dynamics and the psychology of a match-up. Furthermore, outside of saying “yeet” a lot, Uso hasn’t exactly showed that he has the mic skills to carry main event storylines with promos on a weekly basis. In fact, with the exception of one or two occasions, the majority of Jey’s promos have been generic and lacked the substance usually needed to sell a major match.
Jey Uso never really seemed to find his groove in the ring in that role, and to be completely fair, the office might not have given him enough time to have the opportunity to discover himself in that spot. However, and this might be the biggest point to be made from this entire scenario, it’s going to be much more difficult for management to sell Jey Uso as a world champion again because the abbreviated reign sends the message that he wasn’t truly a main event star, but rather just stopped by for a cup of coffee to have a Wrestlemania moment.
There’s undoubtedly a difference between a memorable WM moment and a legitimate title reign as a money-drawing star.
Unfortunately, Jey didn’t get the chance to show if he had the versatility to become a main event talent even though he definitely had a very memorable moment at Wrestlemania 42 in Las Vegas.
Since Jey’s win was unexpected, mostly because many assumed that John Cena was going to win before he eventually turned heel at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, there was a portion of the audience that didn’t truly buy Uso as a potential top guy. It’s a harsh reality, but a brief title reign didn’t do anything to dissuade that notion.
All things considered, it seems like a rather odd decision for Jey to drop the belt on a random episode of Raw, particularly when there’s another pay-per-view in two weeks, but maybe this was done to help bring more live viewers to the Raw broadcast on Netflix? Still, it’s puzzling since it creates questions as to what Uso does next, especially because he already had a series of matches with Gunther on various shows so at least for the time being, there might nor be much steam left for another Uso/Gunter bout.
I could be completely wrong, but for the office to pivot with title change so quickly after Wrestlemania, a move that halted the momentum that Jey had, I’d guess that it wasn’t a switch that was in their original plans when it was decided to give him the belt. The surge in support for Ron Killings after he was briefly released from the organization before an overwhelming amount of fan support led to his return a week later also wasn’t expected among the WWE landscape.
With that being said, I have to say that I think the main reason that Gunther regained the belt was to allow for there to be a Ron Killings/Gunther feud on Raw. I wrote in a previous article that with Cena’s limited dates and how his retirement tour was probably already completed mapped out that there might not be room for another Cena/Killings bout so I’m guessing that putting R-Truth in a feud with Gunther would still be a way for management to maximize his current fan support without disrupting the plans for Cena to ultimately drop the title back to Cody Rhodes before the end of the year. As I also wrote in the recent article, Killings might have another two years as an in-ring performer, but the plan with Rhodes will be as the top guy for at least another five years so it makes sense that it would take priority.
That might be why Killings could be paired with Gunther because halting the momentum of Jey Uso, even if it’s the wrong decision, is a much smaller opportunity cost than diluting the plans for Cody since he’s the more well-rounder performer.
In some ways, the story writes itself, and much of the same dynamic that was used in the angle with Uso could be applied to a feud with Killings. Gunther is the dominate no nonsense champion, and he can spotlight Killings’ past as a comedy character to create doubt that the former R-Truth could actually win the championship. Granted, there would need to be a decision made about if Gunther should lose the belt again in a relatively short span, but since it’s completely hypothetical at this point, let’s cross that bridge if or when we get there.
Still, where does this leave Jey Uso on Raw?
As I said, whatever the next step is, it must be something of importance if the office wants to keep him in the upper tier of the talent on Raw. By nature, with two world championships on the shows, there are going to be more champions and thus it’s much easier for those titleholders to become forgettable. As talent as he was, injuries derailed Dolph Ziggler’s title runs. He’s known as a really solid worker, but his time as champion isn’t exactly memorable. Does anyone recall any details of Jake Swagger or Alberto Del Rio as world champion? Kofi is a great star, but the only thing that fans remember about his time as champion was that he got squashed by Brock Lesnar in mere seconds when he dropped the title on Smackdown. Aside from the fact that this abrupt decision takes Jey Uso out of the main event scene, it could be an indication that management will be more flexible to change plans in the future.
What do you think? Share your thoughts, opinions, feedback, and anything else that was raised on Twitter @PWMania and Facebook.com/PWMania.
Until next week
-Jim LaMotta
Email [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
