The Usos heel turn not only launched their career to new heights but also changed the landscape of SmackDown. The twins dropped their child-oriented face paint and chanting for mean mugs and trash talking. However, if it was up to Vince McMahon, the Usos would still be rocking painted faces.
On an appearance on E&C’s Pod of Awesomeness, The Usos explained the decision to turn heel and the obstacles that, according to the Usos, getting rid of the face paint was a tough sell to the WWE boss.
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“We fought to keep the paint off our face too. A big deal was the paint. That’s another thing they wanted us to stay in the paint and we felt like with this heel switch, you’re not going to take us serious still with paint on our face,” said Jey.
It’s an astute point to make. Young WWE fans have always gravitated towards Superstars with painted faces. If the Usos had to keep their colors, then they would still have an element of appeal to the kids at WWE shows. It needed to be a clean break. However, Vince remained skeptical of the logic.
“That was a real big deal… We had to fight for that, we had to fight for a couple of weeks for that. Vince wants you guys to do paint and we were like: we can’t act fully if we’re stuck with this paint on us,” Jimmy reasoned.
It was the right cause to fight for. With new music, new posture, new clothes and no face paint, the Usos severed ties from the younger WWE fans. It signaled the drastic shift in character that a heel turn is aimed to achieve.
There’s no denying that the Usos as heels have been a smashing success. The brother’s new tenacious identity is all too believable and this realistic interpretation of themselves have been essential to their success. Like many wrestlers, before them, the Usos were saddled with a gimmick that they outgrew. However, unlike many of their peers, they found evolutionary ground for their career.
Getting a second layer of your character in WWE almost always leads to championships. Look no further than Rocky Maivia and The Rock. For nearly 10 years, the Usos proved that they were consistent and trustworthy workers in WWE. Now that their dues have been paid, they get to have a little fun. We here at Pop Culture root for the Usos. You should too.
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