Less than one calendar year after defeating Gunther to become the World Heavyweight Champion, Jey Uso is a champion alongside his brother Jimmy Uso once more. The Usos reunited after Survivor Series to put the entire tag-team division on notice. On the last Monday Night Raw of the year, The Usos defeated AJ Styles and Dragon Lee for gold.
It's unclear what the immediate future holds for The Usos, who WWE creative definitively still see as a draw for WrestleMania. Their participation in the WarGames match could have been a teaser for some kind of WrestleMania match against The Vision. Perhaps they'll take on an established tag team like the Motor City Machine Guns in a mania dream match.
Regardless of the long-term plans, the reason for giving The Usos the titles now has nothing to do with The Usos themselves. In fact, it likely has everything to do with the wrestlers who dropped the titles, particularly AJ Styles.
WWE likely put the tag titles on The Usos to set up an AJ Styles-Gunther feud
No disrespect to The Usos or the tag-team title scene, but it's clear WWE creative has bigger things in store for AJ Styles. After all, Styles has been pretty upfront about how the clock is ticking toward midnight for his in-ring career. Nobody wants to see him go out in a thrown-together tag team.
Styles' wrestling mortality is what makes him the perfect foil for Gunther following John Cena's retirement. Gunther has built up a reputation for retiring legends (well, if we want to call Goldberg a legend) and retiring Styles could be another great resume builder for the Ring General.
WWE already teased this feud the RAW after Cena's last match when Styles and Gunther had a stare down in the parking lot. It's clear WWE wants to run this program at some point in time, and with Styles dropping the tag team straps, it's clear it will happen sooner rather than later.
The easiest way to book this feud is to start it at the Royal Rumble. Styles can eliminate Gunther, who can get his retaliation in some form at Elimination Chamber. In a story that mirrors the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels, Styles could put his career on the line at WrestleMania, guaranteeing Gunther even more heat if he retires yet another fan favorite.
Of course, this would be a closer-than-expected retirement for Styles. However, Styles did say that 2026 will be his last year as an in-ring performer and there's nowhere better to do it than WrestleMania, especially with the rumors of Brock Lesnar retiring at next year's SummerSlam.
And hey, by then it will probably be Gunther stepping up to the plate yet again to retire another staple of the business. It's unclear if WWE planned it this way initially, but Gunther has a real chance to gain momentum as this generation's legend killer, albeit doing it in a much different way than Randy Orton did two decades ago.
Styles makes perfect sense to be Gunther's next victim.