The opening segment of WWE Raw was very solid, it gave Jey Uso, the winner of the 2025 Royal Rumble, a grand entrance to add an extra spotlight onto him and in the process make him look like a bigger star because of it. That’s a key piece of the puzzle ahead of Wrestlemania 41 in Las Vegas in just over two months, as management needs to shine him as much as possible to be put in a position as a credible main event performer for either night one or night two at the biggest event on the calendar.
Yes, two nights of Wrestlemania dilutes the concept, especially because the previous amount of limited spots on the card for any given year emphasized the importance of the stars that had a place on the line-up. However, after the brand of WM became so successful that it became vastly a travel crowd, it made sense for the corporation to maximize revenue, and if the fans are willing to fly in for the pay-per-view then a second night provided an added value to the experience, while more or less doubling the revenue associated with the live events.
So, that necessitates that the company have more than one signature main event to promote for Wrestlemania each year. As I wrote in the review about the Royal Rumble, Jey winning was surprising, not necessarily a negative, just surprising.
If Jey Uso rises to the occasion as a main event performer remains to be seen, but after so many years of Vince McMahon using part-timers and stars from the past as a booking crutch, it’s good to see that the promotion is going to take a chance on moving someone new up the ladder.
As mentioned, the opening of Raw was a major positive for the case to be made for Jey to possibly be a future champion. Jey did the full crowd interaction as he made his way through the arena, and the argument could be made that his entrance is the most over portion of his entire act, which might or might not be a good thing. The entire arena was behind him and the visual alone is a tremendous example of how over he is with the audience.
I’ve said this before about WWE and other organizations within sports entertainment, perception is reality, and the opening of Raw definitely gives viewers the perception that Jey Uso is a major star that is more than over enough with the crowd to be a part of the main event scene of Wrestlemania. If that would’ve been the consensus prior to the Rumble is irrelevant, the bottom line is this, the audience seems to have embraced the notion that Uso is ready for the next level.
On the flip side, the same couldn’t be said for Charlotte Flair later in the night.
The next important portion of the segment was the promo itself. It might be cliche, but sometimes it’s a cliche because it’s true. Professional wrestling has drawn crowds for decades, albeit to varying degrees based on different circumstances, based on human psychology. The emotional investment into a performer or character is ultimately what draws money on a major league level. The audience believed in Stone Cold Steve Austin as the wild redneck that stood up to corporate corruption, they believed that Mick Foley was the dreamer that was willing to sacrifice his body for championship glory, and they believe that John Cena is the real-life super hero that does what’s right.
When Jey Uso legitimately got emotional when he tried to speak on Raw because of the reception that the crowd gave him, it emphasized that he realized that he wouldn’t be in the position he is today without the organic support of the audience. Let’s be honest here, when the Usos were doing the face paint as a generic baby face tag team would anyone have thought there was even a chance that either one of them would be anyone near the main event of Wrestlemania? There were several second generation stars that had a run in the WWE over the years based on their last name before they faded into obscurity. There are Randy Orton and Charlotte Flair, and then there are Manu and Ted Dibiase Jr.
So, there was a journey and a story behind the destination of Wrestlemania that the fans can invest in for the Jey Uso character. He went from a mid-card tag team that could’ve coasted on his family’s legacy to stay employed for several years while remaining in the same position on the card, but instead, there’s a journey and a destination.
It certainly makes it easier for the crowd to be emotionally invested in the results of the championship bout at Wrestlemania when they can see the genuine appreciation that Jey had for their support on Raw.
This is the stark contrast between the approach that Tony Khan has taken with his pro wrestling project compared to the WWE’s narrative for the product, which isn’t to say that one is automatically better than the other, but rather to point out that the building blocks of the genre remain the same regardless of the presentation.
Will Ospreay is undoubtedly one of the best in-ring performers in the world, and if he stays on this path, he could end up with a legendary career by the time he retires. I don’t think it would be an insult, given the British grappler’s level of talent, to say that Ospreay is generally a better athlete than Jey Uso in the ring. However, and this is the biggest point to be made with this column, Jey Uso is put in a position to be a bigger star relative to the size of the organization that he works for than Ospreay is to AEW simply because Uso’s journey to the championship builds the drama and thus the emotional investment to allow for the biggest payoff possible.
How many times have we seen Will Ospreay thrown into these one-off “dream matches” for nothing more than the artificial endorsement of star ratings in The Wrestling Observer newsletter? As I’ve said many times, unless getting seven stars has a cash prize with it, the primary goal should be what’s going to maximize revenue on a long-term basis, not to cater to a niche newsletter.
However, this is far from a knock on AEW, it’s just that the difference between the two products, and ultimately what’s missing from Tony Khan’s program, was made even more apparent during the promo on Raw. Make no mistake about it, All Elite has more than enough pure talent to be in a much better position than they are right now, garnering 604,000 viewers for last week’s episode of Dynamite, a 40% decline from where the numbers were two and a half years ago.
Will Ospreay isn’t being positioned to be the savior of the AEW championship from the clutches of Jon Moxley, who still doesn’t have a specific point to the rambling promos that we’ve heard for almost six months. Instead, Ospreay will work a tag match with Kenny Omega against the Callis family, which was the same thing he was doing last year, at the Grand Slam event in Australia next weekend, an event that originally sold so poorly that it was moved from a stadium to a much smaller venue.
Where’s the journey and the destination for Will Ospreay? Jeff Jarrett’s journey as the old gunslinger that wanted one more run with the title before he hung up his boots was over before it started. What’s the destination of the Moxley faction? The frustrating part is that Tony Khan probably hasn’t decided it yet.
On the flip side, the argument could be made that Jey Uso stamped his ticket to be the future world champion with just the authenticity and the emotion from the promo on Raw. Granted, if Jey is truly going to be successful as a top guy, he will have to be able to rise to the occasion in terms of in-ring performance, but as far as the narrative, there’s a storyline in place to allow him the opportunity to be successful. Jey is the gritty challenger that most didn’t think would be a main event guy against the dominate champion, Gunther that has a persona that lends itself to the storyline where the baby face will have to overcome the odds to win the title.
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
E mail [email protected] | You can follow me on Instagram, Facebook, & Threads @jimlamotta89
