"Main Event" Jey Uso might not have been in the main event of WWE WrestleMania 41, but he did manage to overcome the odds and beat Gunther to win the World Heavyweight Championship on The Grandest Stage of Them All!
We have a new top champion over on the Monday Night Raw roster as The Yeet Man himself leveled up and fulfilled a storyline that has been going on not just the past few months, but the past several years, dating back to some of the origins of the entire Bloodline Saga.
How We Got Here:
When Roman Reigns initially turned heel and started his Tribal Chief character, Jey Uso was one of the first people to challenge this shift in his character, losing to Reigns at both Clash of Champions 2020 and in an "I Quit" Hell in a Cell match. Eventually, he turned heel himself, aligning with Reigns and starting The Bloodline, where he would be called "Main Event" Jey Uso by Reigns, who perpetually promised that he was grooming him to be a potential successor.
For the next few years, Uso remained a loyal servant and a tag team champion alongside his brother, Jimmy Uso, until eventually seeing the error of his ways and rebelling against Reigns, failing several more times to win the title. Jey's popularity continued to grow, and even though he lost to Gunther for the Intercontinental Championship, he eventually won that title temporarily by beating Bron Breakker (and losing it back almost immediately). This proved he could be a singles champion, though, and after nearly defeating Gunther at Saturday Night's Main Event in January, he was poised to win the 2025 Royal Rumble and challenge The Ring General once again.
Match Details:
Gunther's confidence was clearly shaken as a story point for this match, to the point that he opted to grab his title and try to walk out. He ended up also using that belt as a weapon against Uso, who refused to stay down.
Strangely, this match mostly revolved around Jey doing Gunther's moves against The Ring General. So much so that he hit clotheslines, a German suplex, a powerbomb, and ended up winning the match by putting Gunther in a sleeper hold and forcing him to tap out, which was a major surprise. No one has made Gunther tap out yet in WWE, and Jey is not at all known for submission maneuvers.
Jey was able to celebrate with his brother, Jimmy Uso, in the center of the ring:
Personal Reactions & What Happens Next?:
Right now is the time for celebration and hoping for the best. Jey has stood on his own as a singles star for a long while, but his intercontinental title reign was basically non-existent. He's not a proven commodity as far as defending a singles championship. At first, WWE's focus should be in just allowing Jey and his fans to have fun with the joy of him achieving this milestone, complete with a bevy of crowds throwing up their hands during his entrance and vibing to his music.
Eventually, though, he's going to need a challenger to step up and start to feud with. Whether Gunther will get a rematch to kill some time until the 2025 WWE Draft freshens up the roster and allows for people like Drew McIntyre to come challenge Uso, or if Jey will go straight into a story with someone new, is anyone's guess. If I were booking things, I'd look to give him someone to beat relatively soon to try to establish him as a worthwhile fighting champion, before any critics start to doubt his drawing power like what happens to so many first-time babyface world champions (see Kofi Kingston as a great example of this unfortunate negativity).
Uso will hold the title until WWE sees fit to put someone else in that spot, and that could be anywhere from a month from now to many months down the road. It's just too early to tell immediately. In the meantime, feel the yeet!
What do you think about Jey Uso finally becoming world champion? How should Gunther bounce back from this loss? Drop your reactions, thoughts, and predictions for the future in the comments below!