Jimmy Uso – ‘What more can I do to get my WrestleMania moment?’
Since shedding their smiles and the face-paint in 2016 The Usos have become the hottest tag team on the WWE roster.
Their transformation from colourful babyfaces that fans chanted along with, to street thug heels with a chip on their shoulder has been one the most successful transitions in recent memory. So successful in fact Jimmy and Jay are not only being talked about as the best tag team in the company, but many are also singing their praises alongside some of WWE’s all-time greats too.
With an act and look that feels more in keeping with today’s WWE and one much closer to home for both the brothers, the change in direction has seen them taste title success and compete in one the best feuds of 2017, as they exchanged in a series of epic matches with The New Day. Now with that fire lit under them, the pair have their eyes on a bigger goal and finally being part of the main WrestleMania card next month in New Orleans.
In nine years since they debuted in WWE, The Usos have failed to make it on a main card of the grandest stage of them all, and have had to settle for a place on the event’s pre-show for the past four WrestleManias. Something that Jimmy Uso is demined to change, now that he feels that he and his brother have finally climbed to the top of the mountain…
Jimmy, great to talk to you. Let’s discuss the recent transformation of the Usos. Have you been surprised how quickly the WWE taken to the change in direction from you and your brother?
Once my brother and me joined WWE we knew wouldn’t be able to stray away from the tag division and that was the way we knew we could make a mark. Last year we finally got the chance to really open up and really show who The Usos are and I think people came around to us. I didn’t think it would catch on as quick, but it’s always been about us making a mark in the tag division. Growing up that’s all we knew, we’re twins, we’re brothers, so if we keep going out there and kicking ass and kicking ass on the microphone we’ll mark our place in WWE history.
How much of the change was from you and how much input did WWE have in the new look?
That’s all us. When you see this whole reinvention that is every bit me and my brother. It’s so funny because the ring work has never changed; it’s always been the same. Our gear? I literally wear that outside the ring, that’s how I dress right down to the cap. I always wear a cap and now I wear one to the ring I can say that’s me out there. Little stuff like that made us, us, and that’s how people found out we were real and they followed that. Everything is us, even the shoes - I wear the same shoes wrestling that I used to wear in High School. When I’m telling you that’s The Usos, that’s The Usos. What you see out there is one hundred percent The Usos.
What for you was the tipping point in making the change? Who made the call to reinvent The Usos?
It was the people’s call; it was the WWE Universe that called that. If you noticed when we were with Roman Reigns and going against The Bullet Club, after that angle the boos never left us. You know what you’re getting with Roman, he gets cheered and he gets booed. What we got was boos, they stayed with us. So if they don’t like us, why I am out here showing my heritage and going to high-five everybody when they don’t like us. Once the people started and said to us ok Usos it’s your time, what you wanna do? And when we said what we wanted to, we said we were gonna deliver and we delivered. People got what they wanted and to go from good to better is pretty hard to do, but right now we’re top of the mountain.
We’ve also seen you being given more time on the mic, was this part of the change too?
If you ever noticed in my whole career since I’ve been here, we had never talked on the microphone. Go back watch it, even when we against Roman and Dean and we were in the paint, we never talked. It was always bugging me and I was always asking because we knew to be successful in this business you got to do your thing inside the ring and do your thing on the microphone. Even when we turned heel for the first six months we were asking and then finally we got to say something after a match and then it happened. Then the next week we got a promo, and then the next week we got a promo and so on. They liked what we were saying because it was real and we’re going to keep on doing it.
Fans seem to like it very much and we’ve seen you create this whole ‘Uso Penitentiary’ world. Where did that come from?
I just came out to be honest; all this you’ve heard about being locked down and The Usos penitentiary came out of a place of stubbornness and not caring anymore. Going out there and thinking from now on we only care about The Usos and we’re just going to do what we want to do. If we say something that somebody don’t like, who cares? If we do something somebody don’t like, who cares? If we have an idea we’re just going to go with it and let you and that’s what happened with the whole locked down thing. That’s where we got our attitude and that’s when people cottoned on to it; it was more real than the colourful painted-up Usos. Which was fun and we enjoyed it, but what we’re doing right now is real and can really feel it, you know.
Does that include the recent prison graphic that we saw used on SmackDown during your promo? Was that your idea, along with the quotes that appeared flashing across the screen?
That’s all WWE! We’re just rolling with it. I’m a fan of it because it’s different and I haven’t seen it before. I’m not scared to try anything new and always up for something different, but that’s WWE right there.
A lot of the success you’ve had with the change in attitude has come thanks to your feud in 2017 with The New Day. That rivalry was arguably one of the feuds of the year, so how do you look back at it?
Working with those guys was the best of my career so far. There hasn’t been an angle that lasted four months as good as that let alone a tag team angle. Working with them was insane, we were always trying to top each every night, always trying to beat the hell out of each other every night, but our chemistry in there was perfect and I had no idea. From Money In The Bank to Battleground, to SmackDown, the Hell in a Cell Match and SummerSlam those matches were getting extreme and every match was better. We weren’t even sure we could top it each time. Those guys are our brothers and our hats go off to them, one of the best tag teams ever in the WWE hands down, longest reigning WWE champions hands down, biggest merchandise selling tag team ever hands down. Those guys changed the game.
Given all the success you’ve had, especially since this transformation. How desperate are you now to finally make it to a main WrestleMania card and how much of a bugbear is it that it’s something still missing from your CV?
I’ve never had a WrestleMania moment because I haven’t been on the main card yet. I’ve never really felt the full impact of a packed WrestleMania stadium and that prime time feeling. It’s been nine years already and it’s kind of discouraging but I get it. You got to grind to get on that spot, it’s the Super Bowl, that’s the grandest stage of them all. At this point after the year I’ve had, and I’m not on the card, what more can I do? All I can do is keep my head down and make 2018 as good as 2017 and I’ll keep grinding until they say we’ve got to put The Usos on the card. We’ll see, this year I’m hopeful we’re working on something but we’ll see.
It’s something you also experienced at SummerSlam last year when your match with The New Day was moved to the pre-show. You guys still had one of the best matches of the night; did you feel like you had a point to prove?
We did yeah, everything prior to SummerSlam we were killing it, both teams. One of the biggest pay-per-views, another card I haven’t been a part of, last year we were counting on it. Then we get to the building and to be told your match is on the pre-show of course it was a disappointment. But we turned that disappointment into a positive and got our minds together and we were like alright if they want to put our match first we’re going to make it very, very hard to follow. We’re going to go out and have the whole crowd buzzing before the show even starts, and that’s what I felt we did. You get curveballs in life and you got to knock it out the park and that’s exactly what we did.
As someone who’s suffered from being left off main cards, what do you make of the decision to make the pay-per-views duel-branded after WrestleMania?
I like having a Raw pay-per-view and a SmackDown pay-per-view. With both teams combined I feel like you’re really going to have to bust your ass to get on this card now. Who’s to say this SmackDown tag team will get the match on the card or will Raw get the tag team match? I just know with the whole roster on one show everyone’s going to fight for that tag team spot, so it’s going to be a lot harder than it already is. When it was SmackDown roster you’ve only got to worry about that, now there’s double the tally and double the talent, everybody’s going to be fighting to get on that card. Personally I don’t like it, but it’s just another curveball.
We are crossing our fingers that you do get your WrestleMania spot, so if you could pick a dream opponent for WrestleMania who would it be?
I had to pick and it came down to one team for The Usos to fight it would be probably be The Hardy Boyz. I grew up and watching them wrestle and doing their thing, and especially because they were brothers too, you know they be WWE Champions as brothers and so for me that would be my dream match; The Usos versus The Hardy Boyz at WrestleMania.
Finally and leaving with memories of the granddaddy of them all, what has been your favourite WrestleMania moment from it’s illustrious history?
My Dad and Samu as The Headshrinkers had a tag team match at a WrestleMania against The Steiner Brothers. I remember my Dad wasn’t wearing any shoes and that the mat was really hard - that always sticks out. It was the same pay-per-view where Yokozuna beat Bret Hart for the title and Hulk Hogan beat Yoko at the end. To see my Dad and both my uncles in one of the biggest stages of them all was really surreal and it would be really cool to do that again with me, my brother and Roman representing our WrestleMania this year. Two decades ago it was our fathers and now it’s us doing our thing and that would be really cool for our family.
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