As the old adage goes, the more things change, the more they stay the same. And the same can be argued about “Main Event” Jey Uso’s arc over the past five years. The former tag team stand-out breaking away as the “Right Hand Man” to Roman Reigns and being literally beaten into falling in line, dispersing that hatred and that frustration on whomever he was directed towards by the “Tribal Chief.”
He then broke away from that role, going on to cement his “Main Event” status winning the World Heavyweight Championship by making Gunther tap out at WrestleMania. He then reigned well, a fighting champion to a fault, falling on his sword to Gunther once more and forced to turn his focus on getting the title back.
It has hardly turned out to be a fruitful journey for Uso back to the top, falling short in a pool of challengers including eventual champion CM Punk and LA Knight, and thus becoming embroiled in Reigns’s issues once more as part of their joint pursuit of Seth Rollins as current champion. And once again, within the proximity of his larger-than-life cousin, Uso has felt the pressure of regaining the title and the weight of expectation. Something his brother Jimmy went on to note during tonight’s show, as Jey said he was not interested in helping Knight against the Vision and he was just focused on getting his.
Jimmy said that he was starting to sound like Reigns, and that was true. That is the point. It’s subtle, but it is there, this gradual tension brewing in Jey where he no longer wants to be merely the purveyor of a catchy chant of a word popularized last decade. There is a return to the genuine and compelling emotion that propelled him to where he is now, and it is a well-needed development for a character that has been handed loss after loss and stumble after stumble over the past few months.
It lays the foundation for a redemption arc, but more importantly in the short term it gives his character a bit of meat and bones after relying so long on the chant-happy fans and merch sales to reflect.
This is the story of someone that has reached the top, defied all expectations and found new ones bestowed at his door along the way; it wouldn’t be natural for him to continue stepping aside for the likes of Knight and Punk when he too is in the hunt for the world title, and that is the nuance that Jimmy cannot capture because, as Reigns told Jey before he broke away, being theguy requires the ugly decisions that make you look like a viciously selfish a**hole. The closing segment of the show being that soda-pop moment where Jey bursts into Knight to have the final word, that just cements it. He is not a bad guy, nor is he a good guy, he’s just trying to be theguy. And I, for one, welcome that stuff.
Written by Max Everett
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