YMMV / The Usos

• Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Was Jimmy's act of preventing Jey from defeating Roman Reigns at SummerSlam 2023 really to save Jey from the potential corruption that could come? Or was it because he was jealous of Jey's opportunity? Speaking of, is Jimmy's act really an act or has he lost his mind over being separated from his brother and becoming the very same thing he was preventing Jey from becoming? Judging by how he's trying to get back into the Bloodline and later costing Jey and Cody's tag team titles to The Judgment Day, he's Jumped Off The Slippery Slope.
  • Another theory has popped up that Jimmy intentionally went back to Roman not to become a bootlicker, but to help inspire Solo to gradually stand up to Roman and either leave the Bloodline or become the new Tribal Chief. It's shown how Solo is starting to confront Roman more, with Roman looking terrified of Solo standing up to protect Jimmy.
• Angst? What Angst?: Jey went from telling Roman he hated him to being his loyal lackey pretty damn quick. Although slowly but surely this trope was brutally Deconstructed, showing Jey as having a Love Martyr of sorts and going out of his way to please Roman to try to earn his approval or at least avoid his wrath. Jey's dynamic with Roman in the Bloodline has become a starkly realistic portrayal of someone in an abusive relationship with other observant people around him (after a certain point, even his own brother Jimmy) trying to convince him to get out but Jey still can't bring himself to do it.
• Base-Breaking Character: Smarks started losing interest in them shortly after they won their first WWE Tag Team Championship, claiming that they haven't evolved their characters in any way or done many interesting things since. Since they returned in late 2015, they outright turned against them, probably because of their alliance/relation to the most hated man in WWE at the moment, and spending most of their time feuding with smark favorite tag teams such as The New Day, The Dudley Boyz and Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows, who in comparison, were all far more entertaining at the time. However, they remained popular with the casual audience since they were voted Tag Team of the Year in the 2014 & 2015 Slammy Awards, which were determined by fan vote,^note And WWE have denied that the results are tampered with, though they could be lying. the latter happened despite the team being out for most of the year due to Jey's shoulder injury. Then came SmackDown Live with the new brand split, and an epic character turnaround ensued taking them out of this trope.
  • Since their 2016 retooling into a pair of confident, street-smart badasses, most people agree that they warrant their position as a cornerstone of the tag division. Where the base gets a bit broken now is WWE's tendency to use them as a booking security blanket in a tag division that's already booked unevenly as a whole^note Have a tag champ with nothing else to do? Cue the Usos!, which has the unfortunate effect of weakening the division as a whole as some very good teams don't get their due exposure.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Prior to mid-2023, there had been weeks, months, and even years of buildup to the sociopathic Roman Reigns getting what he deserves (in this case, a boot right in the mouth) for the tyrannical mistreatment he laid upon his own family. When Jimmy Uso finally stood up to Roman at Night of Champions 2023, the pair of superkicks he delivered on Roman's chin might have been the most satisfying "Heel character finally gets his comeuppance" moment ever.
  • June 16th, 2023 has the Usos quitting the Bloodline with Jey initially looking like he's kicking Jimmy out...before declaring that he's joining his brother and giving Roman another satisfying superkick to the teeth.
  • Jey's first night as a single competitor on RAW has him reunite with Sami Zayn, and the two hug it out. Considering the bad blood between the two for the past year or so, Sami's willingness to forgive Jey had the crowd cheering.
• Designated Hero:
  • Have shown shades of this in their feud with Goldust and Stardust (Goldust and Stardust). So far Goldust and Stardust have been regarded as the Heels for getting angry at the Usos supposedly getting DQed and counted out on purpose to retain their titles but what we have seen on TV gives no indication the Usos WEREN'T doing so.^note Jey Uso's kayfabe knee injury had been acknowledged before this feud, but mainly in backstage online-exclusive segments; and while Jey was generally powerless to stop the Dust brothers' later assault on his knee using a steel chair, the injury would be written out as "healed" prior to the PPV tag match in which Goldust and Stardust went on to beat the Usos for the titles anyway. Then the Usos attack Goldust and Stardust from behind with a weapon after their match that the Usos were not involved in and the Usos are still considered the Face of this feud. To make matters worse, in the aftermath of the feud, the Usos have started using Twin Magic on their opponents when they're supposed to be the babyfaces.
  • Their feud alongside Roman Reigns against the Club has them being even more so. While the feud was started when Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows made their debut as a team in WWE by attacking the Usos and later attacking Reigns, thinking that would help AJ Styles, the Usos have really been the ones escalating the entire feud. When Anderson and Gallows would later try more attacks, Styles would try to settle things down and act as peacemaker, but the Usos instead attack Styles unprovoked, which led to him defending himself, which in turn led to Reigns attacking him in revenge. Then came Extreme Rules; during Reigns's and Styles's match, Anderson and Gallows interfere once again and the Usos come to run them off. One would think that they would go after them and leave Reigns and Styles to resume their match, right? Wrong. They not only conduct their own attack on Styles in response, they later go out of their way to stop Styles's pin attempt on Reigns, something even Anderson and Gallows didn't do during the match (they just attacked Reigns). At that point, Styles just destroyed them with steel chairs.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • They've been this for years in the WWE tag team division and could be said to have been on the road to this since they first debuted on TV attacking the Hart Dynasty.
  • Jey Uso alone within the VGCW fanbase, ever since his utterly random appearance in a Royal Rumble.
  • Jey Uso alone in general ever since he became the number one contender for Roman Reigns's Universal Championship in 2020, with Roman's abuse and manipulation turning Jey into one of WWE SmackDown's top stars. It became fully cemented at the end of Royal Rumble 2023, where he walked out of the ring in shock and tears.
• Fandom Rivalry: Ever since their street thug-style Day One Ish persona switch, the Usos have become much more unanimously popular, winning back the interest of most fans who'd grown tired of their Uso Crazy run. Nowadays the primary source of snark in their direction comes from fans of the Bullet Club, specifically its heavyweight tag team the Guerrillas of Destiny. First, there's the natural extension of the "WWE vs. New Japan Pro-Wrestling" debate. Then there's the Polynesian factor, putting Rikishi's twin sons against Haku's kids at the prime of each team's runs. On top of all that, the Usos have twice slipped up on Talking Smack and invoked the name of Bullet Club when referring to the stable's alumni Anderson and Gallows as potential crossover opponents from Raw, and the pro-BC crowd is amused by the notion of them eating their words.
  • With the advent of All Elite Wrestling (and arguably even before then) raising their profile, The Young Bucks and The Usos are compared a lot - and it makes sense, given their commonalities. Both are pairs of brothers closely associated with their company's top star, serving as longtime tentpoles of the tag division where they wrestle regularly, and being very fond of superkicks. Each is also considered by at least some to be the best tag team in the industry over the last 10 or so years. A famous bit of backstage lore is that The Young Bucks once had a WWE tryout match against The Usos, giving fans a tease of the possibility that they might one day have a proper match.
• Growing the Beard: Right after they donned the face paint, they graduated from go-to face tag team Jobber to serious threat for the titles. Then they won the titles, and have gone toe-to-toe on several occasions with (and beaten) Luke Harper and Erick Rowan of The Wyatt Family - a pair of guys even The Shield have had trouble with.
  • Combined with Win Back the Crowd following their heel turn in 2016 on SmackDown Live. Their resultant change in character, forgoing the face paint and Siva Tau in favor of street-style vice and aggression against the other SmackDown tag teams, made them fresher than they'd been in years and led to renewed interest in them. Through 2017, a combination of intense promos, fantastic matches, and dominant championship reigns have made the "Day One Ish" Samoan brothers so captivating and highly respected that they even turned back face under the new personas without losing the edge of the gimmick. Successfully reclaiming the position of top face tag team in WWE to much more united fanfare than they had previously, The Usos are now widely considered one of — if not the — best tag team in the world.
• He Really Can Act: While the entirety of The Bloodline rivalry has been critically acclaimed, one of the best parts of it is Jey's reactions to every twist and turn. The moment when Sami betrays The Bloodline by hitting Roman with a chair and Jey leaving made many fans realize that Jey was one of the best parts of the whole storyline.
• Seasonal Rot: Jimmy turning on Jey is generally considered to be where the Bloodline arc took a nosedive, seeing the move as completely nonsensical especially when it was Jimmy who had been the one who pulled the trigger on Roman. Jimmy then almost immediately crawling back to the Bloodline made his character appear even more inconsistent. As a result, the whole storyline seems to be mired in a muddied holding pattern until it can closer to a finale come next April.
• Signature Scene:
  • Them confronting Big E and Xavier Woods — during a Tag Team Gauntlet Match to ensure Kofi goes to Wrestlemania 35 — and telling their New Day rivals that they forfeit.
  • “MAN, I DON’T GIVE A DAMN WHAT THE TRIBAL CHIEF SAY!” (from Jey Uso which would later segue to Sami's "Feelin' Ucey" line).
  • Jey's supposed Heel–Face Turn by joining with Sami by hugging him...and then he superkicks Sami and reveals it was fake.
  • Jimmy annihilating Roman at Night of Champions 2023 with two superkicks fueled by three years of rage.
  • The Usos leaving the Bloodline for good on 6/17/23 Smackdown.
  • Jey pinning Roman Reigns at Money in the Bank 2023.
• Tear Jerker: The ending to the Roman Reigns vs Jey Uso "I Quit" Match at Hell in the Cell 2020. The beatdown is horrendous and Jimmy is begging Roman to realize what he's doing. Roman sits down in the ring and cries about how he's lost himself...only for it to be revealed he was faking it, and he puts Jimmy in a Guillotine submission hold all while Jey tells him to just end the pain. The entire match is enough to twist your guts into knots.
  • When The Bloodline beats Sami down after turning on Roman at Royal Rumble 2023, Jey re-experiences the trauma from Hell in a Cell and has to leave the arena in near tears.
  • The end of the 3/6/23 RAW. Jey looks like he is siding with Sami over his own brother...but then he betrays by Sami by superkicking him and going back to Jimmy's side.
  • The end of SummerSlam 2023. Jey is about to pin Roman and be Tribal Chief...only for someone to drag Jey out of the ring. And said someone is Jimmy! After everything they went through together, trying to look out for one another after Roman gaslit them, Jimmy did the unthinkable and betrayed his own brother. Michael Cole is left screaming "WHY JIMMY?!" in confusion. The following Smackdown reveals that Jimmy did it as Necessarily Evil; he was afraid of his brother becoming corrupted with power like Roman was. Jey cannot take that as an answer, superkicking everyone, even Jimmy, before proclaiming he is out. Out of the Bloodline, out of Smackdown, out of WWE (until he returns as a wrestler for RAW). Meanwhile, Jimmy has gone completely insane, soaking up the heat and essentially turning into a delusional Roman wannabe, going as far as to once again screw Jey over during the 10/16/23 RAW and letting The Judgment Day become undisputed tag team champions again. Jimmy's actions to "save" his brother and his inability to move on has destroyed their relationship.

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