The pieces of the puzzle for this year’s Wrestlemania, a two-night event in Las Vegas in just two weeks, continue to come together in an organic fashion, especially when there was a domino effect between angles that saw a logical impact on the direction of the characters. When everyone reasonable assumed that John Cena might win the Royal Rumble, he was paired with Jey Uso at the conclusion of the match, which is ultimately what led to the shock of the Uso victory since I think it’s fair to say that most people probably wouldn’t have picked Jey as a potential winner before he was one of the final two in the match.
Without a Rumble win to ensure his spot at Wrestlemania, Cena won the Elimination Chamber and turned heel on Cody, something that couldn’t have happened if he won at the pay-per-view in January. So, Jey Uso, who was more or less reasonably thought to be just a tag team guy at one point in his career, was in the world title match at the biggest event of the year against Gunther.
But, should Jey Uso win the title at Wrestlemania?
Truth be told, from the way that management has slotted the Jey/Gunther bout, it doesn’t look like they are setting up for a spotlight moment, even if the plan is for Uso to win the belt. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a knock on Jey at all, his organic popularity is a credit to his talent and the reason that he was booked into the position of challenger at WM, but rather to point out that he simply might be a victim of circumstance in terms of the current scope of the WWE landscape.
John Cena, one of the biggest stars in the history of the entire industry is not only retiring this year, but turned heel with more than twenty years of cache behind. That’s a rare commodity to be able to promote and rightfully has a prominent spot in the main event of night two of Wrestlemania. At the same time, the triple threat match between CM Punk, Seth Rollins, and Roman Reigns will take priority on night one, which is something that seems rather odds, especially since it basically sends the message that the world title match isn’t as important as any of the three other stars. That’s not to say that there isn’t an argument to be made that the three-way match should have the spot, but to explain that it undermines the importance of Jey Uso challenging for the belt.
Depending on the finish of the Gunther/Uso bout, I could see why the office would opt to put the angle that uses a level of suspense with Paul Heyman’s involvement at the top of the card. If Gunther is going to retain the belt, it’s possible that management doesn’t want to end the show on a down note, especially given the massive popularity that Jey had during the past few years.
All things considered, and I might be wrong on this, while I completely understand why the office made the decision to put Jey in a more high-profile spot because of the amount of merchandise he moves, this might be a scenario where the chase is bigger than the potential payoff. Given that he was a tag team guy that many didn’t think would be in this position ahead of WM, the narrative is there for the pursuit of the championship, but the reality is, will Jey Uso truly have enough steam to carry the championship as the A-side of a main event of some of the pay-per-views for the rest of the year?
Beyond saying “yeet” and pumping up the crowd, will Jey Uso be the guy with the promo skills to truly sell the main event of a pay-per-view? I’m not trying to downplay his popularity, that’s not in doubt, specifically because of how well he does on merchandise, but rather a look at it from a storyline perspective, after the chase, is there really more left for him to do?
It wouldn’t be the first time that someone surged in popularity ahead of WM to win the title before it fizzled out rather quickly. Kofi Kingston undoubtedly had the ability to be a long-term champion, but it was squashed by Brock Lesnar in mere seconds a few months later, a booking decision that Kofi never recovered from in terms of popularity. I’m not sure Uso is nearly as versatile as Kofi as far as being a well-rounded performer so there’s less of a case to be made for Jey as the top guy on Raw.
On the flip side, there’s an argument to be made for Gunther to keep the belt, mostly because he has such a rare level of believability and authentic, specifically in the modern era. He has an aura and he has developed well in the role of the champion with solid mic skills despite English being a second language for the Austrian grappler.
I understand that the writing team is trying to throw some fuel on the fire with the attack on Jimmy Uso in recent weeks and it makes sense, but the bout itself still seems secondary in the grand scheme of things. As mentioned, I think the fact that a non-title contest was given the top spot instead more or less emphasizes that notion. Again, there’s an argument to be made for it since it’s CM Punk’s first WM match in over a decade, and of course, there’s the involvement of Paul Heyman with Roman Reigns, but it literally puts something more important than the title in the main event.
If I had to guess, I’d say that Gunther will retain the championship and I don’t disagree with that decision. Taking nothing away from Jey Uso, even if he won, it would probably get lost in the shuffle with some of the other more newsworthy happenings at WM, which is one of the many issues that become a booking hurdle with the two-night format. If Cena beats Cody to break Ric Flair’s record, and it sets up for an angle where he could potentially retire with the belt, or if Paul Heyman turns heel to side against Roman Reigns, will anyone be talking about Jey Usos’ title win? In some ways, if management plans to give Jey the nod at some point, it might actually be better for him to win it on a different occasion to be able to maximize the spotlight on the moment.
This might be a different situation if there wasn’t Cena’s last WM, Cena’s retirement tour, and CM Punk’s first WM main event, but with the way the program is stacked right now, it wouldn’t make sense for Jey to win if his moment would get lost in the shuffle. Furthermore, with the way that Gunther re-established an importance to the Intercontinental title during his reign with that belt, it’s logical to give him the same opportunity to accomplish that with the world championship. Gunther won the belt at Summer Slam last year so maybe that would be a suitable spot for him to drop 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
