By Colin McGuire, ProWrestling.net Staffer
Royal Yeetble. Elimination Yeet. YeetMania. Money In The Yeet. SummerYeet. Survivor Yeet.
Yeet all the time.
Jey Uso won the men’s Royal Rumble match Saturday night. You already knew that. From what I gather, the decision to have Jey go over in a match that historically sets up at least one WrestleMania main event has been somewhat polarizing. The Cagematch.net rating for the match, as of this writing, sits sternly at 5.55 (for reference, the Mid-South Tag Team Street Fight with FTR vs. Jon Moxley and Wheeler Yuta that aired on AEW’s Collision Saturday night has earned a 7.43, so if you opted to watch the Rumble Saturday night, joke’s on you, pal. I kid). So, some people loved it. Some people hated it. Some people continue to criticize it. Some people continue to celebrate it.
The truth, as is typically the case, probably lies somewhere in the middle. Should we commend WWE for not going with a suspected winner in the name of an upset that really, when you think about it, doesn’t not make sense? Absolutely. On the other hand, is it kind of/sort of a let down that some of the dozens of possibilities for title matches/Mania main events that we could see develop going into the Rumble now feel impossible? A little bit.
(Yes, I know we still have Elimination Chamber to deal with before the top of the Mania card is locked in, but because Jey was never really factored into most of our – or, well, at least my – fantasy booking, some possibilities feel dead on the vine).
The most important part, of course, is that it has people talking. As such, I thought now might be a good time to check in on the pros and cons of the Yeet Master standing tall Saturday night. I mean, what else were you expecting? Super Bowl predictions?
Pro: Nobody saw this coming
It might feel like a cop-out reason to support the decision to make Jey a Royal Rumble winner, but it’s really not. For so many years – and I mean. So. Many. Years – the Rumble has felt far too predictable. Perhaps even worse, we’ve so often seen us fans go into the event with this obnoxious attitude: Here’s who we suspect is going to win, but goddammit, here’s who we think should win and WWE, you suck if you don’t listen to us. So, Jey getting the win here bucks that notion in a few ways because he wasn’t who most of us suspected would win and at the same time, he also wasn’t who anyone thought should win. That said …
Con: Nobody saw this coming
Two things can be true at once. As I mentioned earlier, the potential matches that could have been borne out of this year’s Rumble winner were a ton of fun to consider. That happened because the build to the match was the best it’s been in a very long time (maybe ever?). Think of all the promos that led up to Saturday night. CM Punk. Cody Rhodes. Kevin Owens. Roman Reigns. Seth Rollins. Drew McIntyre. Damian Priest. Rey Mysterio. Logan Paul. Gunther. John Cena. Because of all those question marks heading into the thing, I have to be honest: A tiny bit of wind was knocked out of me once I saw Cena’s feet hit the floor, marking his elimination from the match. If anything, once we got down to the final three entrants, I happily accepted the thought that we could all but solidify at least one Mania match Saturday night with Cena’s win. From there, the Elimination Chamber results would be a lot of fun to speculate on over the next bunch of weeks. But now? Well, now it feels like we get a Jey vs. Gunther rematch and a John Cena Chamber win. Meh.
Pro: Jey Uso winning the Rumble makes a lot of sense
Have you seen those entrances each week on television? Is there another word (or words) in pro wrestling more popular than “Yeet?” This guy is a walking, living, breathing party and he brings that each time he shows up to a WWE event. In a lot of ways, his win on Saturday makes me wonder what might have been, had Paul Levesque and his team been in total control of the spaceship when Sami Zayn had his run going into his 2023 Elimination Chamber match with Roman Reigns. At the time, Zayn was what Uso is now: Super over with the live crowds. A billion people clamoring to see him win The Big One. A real connection with fans. It would have been the upset of the century and seeing Jey Uso pull this off while knowing what was left on the table as a result of his win makes me think there’s a fair chance that Zayn might have been walking away with gold at some point during his feud with Roman Reigns. But I digress. In short, Jey Uso has figured out the way into wrestling fans’ hearts. That’s rare. Why not reward him for it?
Con: Jey Uso winning the Rumble means the best wrestling match will not be in the ring
I’m not trying on any level to throw shade at Jey Uso. He’s a fine wrestler. A good wrestler. He’s probably one of the best tag team wrestlers of his generation. And I’m not even saying his match against Gunther on Saturday Night’s Main Event was a bad match. In fact, it was a good match. But was it WrestleMania World Title Match-Worthy? Eh. Granted, we are still two and a half months away from Mania and just because we are all working under the assumption that we’ll get a Jey vs. Gunther rematch doesn’t mean we will actually get a Jey vs. Gunther rematch. Maybe Gunther loses his belt. Maybe Jey picks Cody. But if we work under the assumption that it’s going to be Jey vs. Gunther, we have to think there are better pure wrestling matches out there, right? Plus, we’ve seen this story before – as recently as last year’s WrestleMania. Gunther has a dominating title reign. A heavy underdog – in last year’s case, Sami Zayn – finds a way to slay the dragon and take his title. Somehow, we believe it. Life moves on. I’m not saying Gunther and Jay Uso can’t have a good to very good match; I’m just saying if that’s the way the company decides to go, some money will be left on the table.
Pro: This extends John Cena’s multiple quests.
It simply would have been too easy for Cena to waltz back in, win the Royal Rumble and march onto WrestleMania without much resistance (it also would have been bad decorum because excuse me … um … where, exactly, are those John Cena matches on John Cena’s Retirement tour? January was a hell of a light month, wrestling-wise, for the guy). In fact, since we are in the business of surprises now, what if Cena actually doesn’t win the Elimination Chamber and his quest for one last title reign is held off even longer? I wouldn’t hate it. My point is that the longer it takes John Cena to get into a main event title match and the more obstacles he has to endure to get there, the better. Jey Uso winning the Royal Rumble – and eliminating Cena at the very end to boot – made Cena’s final year that much more intriguing.
Con: KofiMania is a cautionary tale for The Yeet Movement
The stories aren’t dissimilar. A lovable babyface gets a bunch of momentum behind him. The company takes notice. The company does right by said momentum and rewards the wrestler with a title reign. And all of that is fine and good … but what about six months from now? Kofi’s ultimate prize was getting squashed by Brock Lesnar and never really sniffing the top of the card again. Could the same happen to Jey Uso, should he be victorious at WrestleMania? The Usos are clearly in their Singles Run Era, but could they reform as a tag team down the line and maintain a spot at the top of the card? The New Day didn’t quite do that and I’m not sure they even would have had Big E stayed healthy. As such, this question must be asked: What’s the long-term plan for Jey Uso, win or lose at WrestleMania? And if there isn’t one, does this Royal Rumble win eventually go down in history as little more than a fun surprise in the moment? Only time can answer that.
Be the first to comment