EXCLUSIVE: Jey Uso gives backstage details on The Usos fantastic heel turn in 2016 and showers prais
Jey Uso has his first world title opportunity this Sunday.
It must be fate that it comes against real-life cousin Roman Reigns and his twin brother Jimmy - who has been by his side for almost entire career - is out injured.
The story of Jey's career thus far has been all about tag team wrestling. The six-time Tag Team champion is a legend in that field already and when talkSPORT had a chance to talk to Jey before Clash of Champions, we had to ask about that side of his career.
More specifically, The Usos' fantastic heel turn in 2016 and working with the New Day.
On how they turned heel in 2016...
The seed planted when we was with Roman. We helped Roman a little bit and this is when the WWE Universe were just not with him. Remember they would just boo him no matter what.
We started going out with him and they'd boo us, so it carried over. When we were doing live events, we would get booed a little. I was like 'uce [Jimmy], you hear that?' and he's like 'yeah'.
So we finally went to the big man [Vince McMahon] and we said can we do this? And at first he was against it. It took a couple tries from us to convince him and then it was like, hell yeah. 'You want to go out there with the outfits? This is what you want to do, right?' We were like 'yup, it's time.'
Then it's like 'Ok, the balls in your court.' So we're either going to hit it on the head, uce, or we're in the back. We're going to drown if this don't work! And then they wanted us to keep the face paint with the heel turn. And we didn't want that. There was no way.
If we're going to go, we got to drop everything. Drop the bright colours, drop the face paint. That's where just the black and white came from.
We found a black hoodie in the middle of the mall - it was like $30 - and you know how they can just print stuff right there and then? Me and my brother were like 'what are we going to put?'
'Hmm, I don't know. Day one s***?' Ok, obviously we can't say that, so it's ish! So people get it and don't get it, but that's what it was.
On The Usos' promo style...
As far as the promos go, we knew if they gave us the microphone, we knew how we would talk. That's what would separate us. It's not like one person talking. We knew as soon as we did that, that's what got us over.
The first promo we did, it was a 30 second backstage and there was a light. It was 30 seconds and we were like 'what are we gonna say, man?'
We were just over there vibin' and we said 'it's not paranoia, it's The Usos' - that's it! It's not paranoia, it's The Usos. That was the first week.
The second week, we had a live microphone coming through the crowd against American Alpha. They had just had a match and we came through the crowd and just cut this fire on them. We blew flames on them, uce [laughs].
Then when we came back to gorilla they were like 'yo!' I remember John Cena was back there and he said 'Yo, I didn't know you guys could do that. Do it again!' Yeah, that's easy! Boom.
Then we had the rap battles with New Day and The Bar - murdered it. We take pride in that, uce. Our promo game and for any wrestler listening or reading this, that's what will set you apart.
Anyone can do a backflip, anyone can do a move. It's your character. That way, when you do superkick someone it means so much more. It's still evolving though, you always have to evolve.
On how working with New Day helped them both...
I love those guys. The Usos Vs New Day wasn't even supposed to go on as long as it did. Maybe like a month? Then we ended up just doing what we did.
Because those guys were so unselfish, everything was for the match. It was never we're The Usos or we're The New Day - it was never none of that.
We vibed and meshed so good in the ring it just bled through. On top of that, the rap battle, when that was brought to us I was like this could be really good, or the people are just going to bury it! We were nervous about that.
The cool thing about the rap battle; they didn't know anything we were gonna say and we didn't know what they were going to say. The reactions on there are real, even with The Bar. I really enjoyed that.
I love those guys. I would run it back with those guys any and every single day of the week.
On Big E's singles run...
I love it, man! Whenever I see Big E backstage now he's looking at me like 'It's your time, uce, it's your time, uce!' I love Big E, man.
Seeing where he started and where he can and will be, the world ain't ready for Big E. I'm trying to have Big E bring back that five count, man! Old school.
Catch Jey Uso and Roman Reigns’ family showdown over the Universal title this Sunday at Clash of Champions on the WWE Network
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