Jey Uso: What’s next for him after WWE WrestleMania 41?

Before I start with the main topic of my column, I wanted to go back to my previous columns about John Cena’s heel turn.

A lot has been said about this subject here and on social media. The thing is, while there are some plot holes in the segment—which were mentioned by Stevie Richards on his show—this was just the first chapter in a multi-layered story. You also have to take into consideration that Cena needs a way to have his redemption story before the end of his retirement tour, so this kind of helps with that. I really hope we get answers about what The Rock said to him that made him turn on the fans and how the whole alliance will play out, but for now, I’m happy with how they started the story.

Now, let’s move on to the main topic, which is the guy Cena lost to at the Rumble—Main Event Jey Uso.

I kind of feel bad for Jey at this point. He got, quite frankly, the biggest win of his career at the Rumble, was supposed to be in the main event at Mania, and then The Rock came around and, along with Cena, pretty much took over the main event picture. On top of that, you have Punk, Rollins, and Reigns feuding over on Raw and also being built as a big Mania main event. So now, Jey has become an afterthought, and his match will probably be the opening match on Night One of Mania. Yes, I’m sure he will get his big Mania moment and win the title from Gunther, but will this win mean anything after Mania, or will we get another Kofi Kingston-type title reign?

For me, I feel like this will end up being a Kofi-style championship reign for Jey. He’s getting the title mostly because fans are behind him right now, but once he wins it, he will probably lose some of his popularity and go back to the midcard after dropping the title.

The other problem is that WWE doesn’t have a lot of top-level heels to feed to Jey once he becomes champion.

Right now, after he gets through Gunther, he doesn’t really have anyone. He has feuded so much with McIntyre and Owens that I doubt fans would want to see those rivalries again. Punk isn’t turning heel, and having him feud with Jey over the title in a face-vs-face match would kill Jey’s popularity. The same goes for Rollins. Then you have upper-midcard guys like Balor and Nakamura, but again, are these predictable feuds interesting enough to elevate Jey? Not really.

So just by looking at the way this feud is being built and who could be lined up to face Jey after Mania, I truly feel like he’s being set up to fail and will become yet another flavor of the month who wasn’t able to break through as a top guy.