Jimmy Uso Discussing He And His Brother’s Growth: “People Started To Feel Us Because We Were Real, This Wasn’t An Act”
The Usos are on top of the wrestling tag team world.
After nearly ten years of being in the WWE, Jimmy & Jey never were featured on a WrestleMania main card. The duo were sent to pre-show duty if they were not on the card at all, but they have always known what they were capable of and what they were worth. Jimmy & Jey ridded of the face paint and ridded of their feelings regarding what fans thought of them and presented an on-screen persona which has connected them to the fans more-so now than ever. Yahoo! Sports had the opportunity to interview The Usos ahead of their SmackDown Live Tag Team Titles defense this Sunday at WrestleMania, and the duo opened up about the new and improved Usos that fans can not seem to get enough of.
“It was about that time,” Jimmy Uso told Yahoo Sports. “We started to feel that the Siva Tau, the friendly Usos deal was kind of running low. We hadn’t even touched the microphone at all in our career and I feel like we got over just on in-ring performance. No one had ever really heard us talk. I grew up watching Stone Cold, watching The Rock, just like everybody else. Shawn Michaels, Triple H, all these dudes could talk, we have to talk to be the complete package.”
While working with their cousin Roman Reigns The Usos began to notice the crowd slowly switching on them. Instead of backing down from the fifty-fifty reactions from fans, they decided to embrace it.
“It was all clear, all in the making, it just worked, it was very organic,” Jey Uso stated, “The crowd was 50-50 with us, when we were with Roman. It stuck with us. We just went 100 with it, let’s do it, the time is now, it’s a fresh slate, it’s time to play ball. What’s the next chapter of The Usos, boom. I was like ‘Ok, I kind of like this' because I was tired of trying to put a smile on my face,” Jimmy Uso said. “I wanted to let the people know how we were really feeling. We really felt like we were the best tag team and getting overlooked. Put us in the ring with anybody and we’ll put on a five-star match. I’m not trying to be cocky about it, but that’s how you have to have the confidence to put on every night.”
At the beginning of their "heel" run in WWE, Jimmy & Jey only amped up their in-ring style, but once they were able to get a microphone in their hands on a consistent basis it went uphill for the duo from there.
"In the beginning of the heel Usos, we were just showing that aggressiveness, that viciousness that people gravitated to,” Jey Uso said. “Then, once people started saying ‘I like how they work as heels, they have personality as heels’ and we started to roll with it, it was like, Ok here’s the microphone. Now we’re rolling with the microphone, ‘Oh, I didn’t know they could talk, I didn’t know they talked that way." Jimmy added, "People started to feel us because we were real,” Jimmy Uso said. “This wasn’t an act. I really wear Air Force 1's, that’s really me out there, that’s really my brother out there. That’s what people got with and really understood. They started saying ‘I like that, I can get with it.’”
As noted, The Usos will be defending their SmackDown Live Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 34 in a Triple-Threat tag team match against The New Day and the Bludgeon Brothers. To read up on how this match came about, click here.
