Presumably, The Usos aren’t leaving WWE anytime soon, but with their contracts reportedly set to expire in a couple of months, they are in position for a significant payday from the biggest wrestling promotion in the world.
Pro wrestling is undoubtedly in a great place right now, and last night’s AEW “Ticket Party” in Las Vegas offered a glimpse of that. With Sonny Kiss, Nyla Rose, Kylie Rae, Sammy Guevara, the Lucha Bros and more set to help AEW in 2019, wrestling fans are starting to see more options for their favorites wrestlers that go beyond WWE, ROH, NJPW, MLW, and Impact Wrestling. And those other promotions have stepped up their game, as Ring of Honor have thrown money at big names like PCO and Rush.
WWE, however, remains the cream of the crop, and no promotion will threaten them any time soon. They have most of the premier talents in wrestling, and included among those top stars are Jimmy and Jey Uso.
Arguably the best tag team in the world, The Usos have put on classic match after classic match over the years, even though they’ve never been given prime positions on Pay Per Views. This is because WWE doesn’t value tag team wrestling on the same plane as singles wrestling, which, while understandable on some level, is something AEW seems to be ready to take advantage of immediately; at the Double or Nothing Ticket Party, they teased a main event match on May 25 between The Young Bucks and The Lucha Bros.
Fightful.com’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that The Usos haven’t re-signed with WWE yet, and sources backstage informed Fightful that there is some “fear internally” that the Usos may simply be waiting out their contracts.
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Sapp made it clear that there’s no word on whether or not The Usos intend to leave, but, rather, it’s a case of WWE wanting to get them signed to a new deal as soon as possible. PW Insider’s Mike Johnson reported that the five-time WWE Tag Team Champions’s contracts expire in April, a significant month in the WWE calendar for both contracts and main roster movement after WrestleMania.
Since Sapp’s report includes words like “fear” and “hoping” as they pertain to The Usos’ contract situation, it’s abundantly clear that WWE would like to keep Jimmy and Jey on the roster for the long term. Given that The Usos are arguably their best tag team, elite in the ring and chillingly good on the mic, this should come as no surprise.
Even if The Usos have zero intention of leaving – and, again, nobody is suggesting they are ready to move on – contract negotiations are all about leverage. And for the first time in their careers, The Usos can say that they have a significant amount of leverage.
All Elite Wrestling is responsible for the majority of this, not only because they are the “new kids on the block” backed by billionaires, but also because of their commitment to tag team wrestling. The Young Bucks and The Lucha Bros didn’t need WWE to become two of the most popular acts in tag team wrestling, shining all over the world in promotions like CMLL, AAA, NJPW, ROH, and TNA/Impact.
The Usos are just as good as both of those tag teams and could benefit from competitive paychecks and a place at the very top of the card in AEW. There are plenty of benefits WWE offers over AEW, such as stability and the prestige of being the best promotion in the world, but the fact that AEW has benefits specifically tailored to a top-notch tag team – one with several YouTube videos scoring millions of views – is significant.
Pro wrestlers, in many ways, don’t get their full due from promotions in terms of compensation, partially because of a lack of competition. In WWE, The Usos are classified as independent contractors and not employees, which significantly impacts the benefits they receive outside of their salary. But in negotiations, they can control their salary, these secondary benefits, and potentially the way tag teams are treated in WWE.
The Revival’s reported discontent with the state of tag team wrestling in WWE has led to some minor changes on Raw recently, including a stricter enforcement of tag team wrestling rules. Whether more significant changes follow and play into Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder’s decisions remains to be seen, but WWE tag teams like The Revival and The Usos now have a much more significant voice when it comes to shaping the product.
WWE’s efforts to expand into other regions of the world, such as the United Kingdom and Japan, are a result of their desire to own as much of the wrestling pie as possible. Though AEW and other promotions aren’t a direct threat to WWE, they’d like to corner every aspect of the market possible in order to compete with entities they see as equals in the sports and entertainment space – you know, properties like the NFL and NBA.
If WWE gives AEW an opportunity to build a superior tag team wrestling product than them, that’d be a loss. If Jimmy and Jey become main-event players as tag team and singles competitors in AEW, then that’s a loss on their part.
The Usos have real leverage in negotiations with WWE this winter and spring, and their situation is definitely worth monitoring in April. Nobody is entertaining the thought of one of WWE’s most beloved and respected tag teams leaving a promotion they’ve become a cornerstone for, but it is worth discussing how their negotiations with WWE could impact others. They have a chance to coax more from WWE at the bargaining table, playing on the reported fears the promotion has of a tag team mainstay “riding out their contracts”.