10 Genius Ways WWE Wrestlers Survived “Go Away” Heat
3. The Usos
They may have been some of the best tag team hands that the company had for the better part of a decade, but for a long time the Usos felt like they were missing something. With limited promo time, Jimmy and Jey were really just summed up as great in-ring workers who wore brightly coloured face paint.
It couldn’t last, and the duo’s descent into crowd disinterest was sped up by their association with Roman Reigns in 2016 who was himself being routinely booed.
As such, the Usos were distanced from their cousin and given a new gimmick. This in itself was almost unthinkable as the pair had been babyface for a solid five years and their rainbow PG image seemed immovable. Still, in the summer of 2016, the Usos left behind their paint and instead became a streetwise pair of thugs.
Being given the microphone for the first time in their careers reinforced the change in attitude as well as attire. Like many stars once being booed out of the building, this new spark sling-shotted them to one of the most entertaining acts on SmackDown.
After half a decade on the side of good, turning heel allowed the Usos access to new opponents and new feuds. They became a more active part of storylines which rounded out their skillset and allowed them to be recognised as one of the best tag teams in modern wrestling.