Jey Uso defeated GUNTHER at WrestleMania
Credit: WWE
Jey Uso beat Gunther with his own rear-naked choke submission in a heated opener at WrestleMania 41. With fans almost unanimously behind Jey Uso, Main Event Jey claimed the first world championship of his career after a decorated tag team run.
Online discourse be damned, Jey Uso could never be denied. Despite largely fake outrage online, beginning with his Royal Rumble win which received 50,000 dislikes amid his elimination of John Cena, internet outrage has been supplanted with real-life yeeting at every stop.
“I don’t put a lot of stock into what is on the internet unless it follows through to other things we do,” said Triple H during a recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
“When Jey Uso won the Rumble, there were a lot of people that had a their thoughts and comments and opinions on that, which is at the end of the day, all they are. But there are 15,000 people in a venue and, as Pat’s said, its been sold out all the time and Yeeting and going absolutely crazy when he comes out. So who do we listen to? The few people? Or the large crowd?”
Jey Uso echoed similar sentiments to me during an interview at Supercell’s Clash of Clans media event.
“Nah, man,” Jey simply responded when discussing if online hate ever gets to him. Uso commands a large presence in the gaming community as the custom “YEEter” character has been downloaded over 250 million times in Clash of Clans.
“If you just get out of the house. If you just get out from behind your iPhone, your iPad, your computer screen, right? And you come out the house, and you let the sun hit you on the face a little bit sometimes, Uce. Breathe in some fresh air, you know what I’m saying? Come on down to where your arena’s at one time, if WWE’s ever in the building.”
“And if you ain’t ever been to a WWE show, Uce, this is my invitation. Come through. It might change your whole perspective and your whole opinion about Jey Uso, because when you step into an arena—if you buy a ticket, Uce—and step into an arena and come to a show. You’ll feel the energy, Uce, instead of hating. Come on, man, stop.”
Jey Uso’s unanimous popularity IRL paints an entirely different picture of any social media vitriol, which is always polarizing. Jey’s organic Yeet Movement is similar to Daniel Bryan’s “Yes” Movement and even Stone Cold Steve Austin’s “What!” chant, both of which Jey told me were inferior to “Yeet.”
Jey ranked “Yes!” at No. 2 and “What” at No. 3.
Jey’s copywrighted “Yeet” catchphrase has inspired to countless merchandise items. Everything from sunglasses to customized championship belts all fly off the shelves. Some have made the mistake of dismissing Uso’s most recent rise as a fluke. “He’s just a catchphrase,” they say.
They’re wrong.
Jey Uso was a Hall of Famer before he donned a pair of sunglasses and threw his hands in the air among a sea of adoring fans. As one-half of the Usos, he’s arguably part of the greatest tag team in WWE history. The pair had a record-breaking tag team run that ended at WrestleMania 39: The first tag team match to main event WrestleMania since WrestleMania I.
Jey Uso was an OG member of the Bloodline, arguably the greatest faction in WWE history. And if you ask Jey about his catchphrase, as I did, he’ll tell you he has the greatest catchphrase of all time. Yeet or No Yeet, Jey Uso is history. And his win over Gunther was a historically feel-good moment to kick off WrestleMania.
Jey will need a steady diet of heels on Raw. Raw’s heels are currently influx, with top heels few and far between. But this can all change with a heel turn or two by the end of WrestleMania weekend, not to mention the looming WWE Draft. As for now, WWE’s Yeet Era is officially underway.
