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| The facepaint is a nice touch Photo Credit: WWE.com |
See, the Usos, at least to me, always got a short shrift. They came into WWE, and right away, they were thrust into a Tag Team Championship program with the Hart Dynasty, a team that was the favorite of fans like myself and my friends/peers, but one that was still trying to find footing with the fans. As it turns out, while Uncle Bret had cache with older fans, it didn't rub off on them. The feud material, outside of their initial attacks on the Harts, wasn't really all that inspiring. It didn't help that their union with Tamina Snuka disintegrated into a Santino Marella love vehicle. I wrote them off initially, but then they kept popping up on Superstars in solid tag bouts against a bevy of opponents. Then they started doing the siva tau and engaging in crowd participation. Slowly but surely, they won me over, and as it turns out, I wasn't the only one.
That in and of itself is an upset. Not winning me over, but with the WWE crowd at large, which is populated by people whom I don't want to say are racist, but they know stereotypes and react to them. If you're a Samoan and you don't have a separate gimmick that is more entertaining and larger than the stereotype like daddy Rikishi did, then it's going to be surprising at least if the crowd reacts to them if they aren't "savages." Again, I feel icky making the generalizations, but too many times, WWE crowds have proven me right, so while it's incorrect to automatically assume that if you are a WWE fan and you aren't a part of the sort of the Twitter-based hardcore fan community that you're a redneck, there needs to be a bit of a proving period if that makes sense.
What's even more amazing is that the Uso twins have not only gotten fan support, but they've done so almost in a barnstorming fashion. They work dark matches and Superstars/Main Event. Over the last few years, they've done the house show circuit enough that there are people in the crowds who see their entrance and their shtick and react to it favorably. They've done so embracing their culture but not parodying it. To me, that's the biggest sign that maybe these wrestling fans aren't as backwards as some people derisively accuse them of being.
So now, if the narrative of their match against the Prime Time Players is to be believed, they are in line to be the next challengers to the Shield once Team Hell No's course has been run completely. Again, I could not be happier for them because they're a good tag team. If WWE really is interested in building a tag team division instead of just having belts going to amalgamations of main event dudes, then there are a billion worse options than having these twins anchor the good guy side of things. Obviously, I'm not sure if them beating the Shield now should be in the cards, but down the road, it would be a great moment to see them as the team that was able to topple Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins.
And the facepaint? I felt a lot better about it after the match was over. See, I dig facepaint. Much in the same way I love masked wrestlers, it's such an easy way to distinguish personality with not a whole lot of effort, outside the actual painting of course. I just don't like when it represents something a bit more sinister. However, seeing how the Usos acted during that match, it's clear that they're not going to abandon their college-educated personae for a life of savagery. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if the facepaint was their own call, and that would be the coolest thing of them all - good wrestlers doing little things on their own volition to make themselves great.