The Usos have been a part of the WWE landscape for a decade. It’s long enough for them to have racked up six main roster tag title reigns to date, and to stake their claim among the greatest representatives of the Anoa'i Family in WWE. The brothers are a quintessential part of modern mainstream wrestling right alongside, and arguably superseding teams like New Day, The Bar, and The Bludgeon Brothers.
Like most acts that stick around WWE for as long as The Usos, they’ve undergone their share of transformations. Moreso than simple heel or face turns or engaging in feuds with different tag teams, their identities have undergone seismic shifts over the years.
9 Rikishi’s Backup Dancers
The Usos have blazed a trail of their own as strong in-ring performers and recognizable personalities in WWE lore. It will also always be a part of the team’s identity that they are the sons of Rikishi.
Rikishi had about as strong of a WWE career as a Superstar can without ever winning a WWE Championship, and it’s appropriate he gets celebrated as a legend when he returns to WWE television. However, these occurrences for various reunion specials as well as his terrific Hall of Fame induction speech relegated Jimmy and Jey to clear supporting roles. They took Too Cool’s place as his backup dancers and otherwise served as window dressing for their famous father, undermining their own value as stars.
8 Young Heels
The Usos debuted on the WWE main roster as heels, teamed up with Tamina, and feuded early on with The Hart Dynasty—the tag team of DH Smith and Tyson Kidd, clustered with Natalya. The Usos showed potential out of the game as athletic and hard-hitting, but they still had a ways to go in terms of working out their identities.
It’s to be expected that there would be some growing pains for any young act getting its start in WWE. Nonetheless, considering how far The Usos have come, this version of them can’t help but feel like a relatively weak spot in their careers.
7 Backup Against The Club
When AJ Styles feuded with Roman Reigns in 2016, he delivered some of his best WWE matches as a heel. The Phenomenal One had some serious backup in the form of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. Not to be outdone, The Big Dog solicited the help of his cousins, The Usos.
There’s an argument to be made that The Usos got the rub here, getting main event level exposure by association with Reigns, and working against a faction the caliber of The Club. Just the same, they were also clearly relegated to a supporting role, with little indication they were being promoted for the long haul, but rather guest-starring at the top of the card as Reigns’s sidekicks.
6 NXT Redemption
On the surface, getting moved to the NXT Redemption roster was a demotion for The Usos, who went from appearing on the proper main roster to what was clearly branded as a B or C-level show, before WWE relaunched NXT properly as a developmental system. However, there are those times when it benefits an act to be a big fish in a small pond, rather than getting lost in an ocean.
On NXT Redemption, The Usos got more of a chance to shine, feuding with other young teams like Curt Hawkins and Tyler Reks, and an early take on The Prime Time Players. Here, The Usos got more face time and honed their craft to get ready for bigger things.
5 First Face Run On The Main Roster
The Usos rebranded themselves in 2013 with face paint and a tribal dancing entrance that tapped into their Samoan heritage and helped to distinguish them for a new face run.
At this stage in their careers, Jimmy and Jey truly started to show what they were capable of as a dynamic, high-flying team. They still had room to grow in terms of their promo work and in-ring psychology, †hough. This version of The Usos demonstrated that the team was more than flash in the pan, but rather an act that would have real longevity in WWE.
4 The Fatu Brothers
Before they were known as The Usos, and before NXT properly existed, Jimmy and Jey debuted in WWE’s developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, known as the Fatu Brothers. The name was not only their real last name but it also paid homage to their father, who’d gone by Fatu as half of The Headshrinkers.
The tandem showed glimmers of the success to come in developmental, emerging as one of the top acts to work in FCW before thriving on the main roster. Their tenure included a tag title run that saw them fend off a variety of pairings of fellow second or third generation talents and other new prospects. Still, as one would expect, the guys were still figuring out their craft at this point and their best work was yet to come.
3 Face Champions
The Usos face turn in 2013 set them on a course for success as they became a legitimately popular and entertaining tag team. Things went to the next level, though, when they not only gave The New Age Outlaws one of their best matches but took the tag titles off of them in March 2014.
The Usos would go on to reign for over six months. It wasn’t their last reign as tag champs, but it was arguably the most memorable, and the one that put them on the map as legitimate contenders to be called one of the greatest teams of their generation. The brothers were particularly impressive in fending off a game challenge from Luke Harper and Erick Rowan.
2 The Uso Penitentiary
For as successful as The Usos had been in their face run as happy-go-lucky, high-flying faces, by 2016 the act had grown a bit stale, particularly relative to newer teams that started to capture the imagination of WWE fans.
The Usos turned heel and took on an edge, shunning their brightly colored garb in favor of black pants and a street clothes aesthetic. In doing so, they joined the list of elite teams that won tag titles as both faces and heels. Add in a unique new style of delivering promos on their way to the ring, and The Usos got as over as they had ever been, to the point that fans all but forced them back into a face role. This run was highlighted by a truly brutal, classic Hell in a Cell war with New Day.
1 Finding Their Place In The Tribe
In fall 2020, the unlikely happened. After Roman Reigns turned heel, Jey Uso was cast as his first serious challenger. On paper, this was a mismatch between arguably the biggest star in the company and a guy who had pretty much only worked in the tag team ranks. However, the family connection between the two, and startlingly good dramatic work from each of them, made their two PPV matches irresistible attractions. The angle succeeded to the point that some critics genuinely thought Jey should win their Hell in a Cell encounter.
The story is still evolving as of this time, as Jey seems to seek Reigns’ approval as the “head of the table.” Jimmy is out due to injury for now but seems to be playing a conflicted role that should only add intrigue when he is ready to get back into the ring. In a sense, The Usos are back to playing their cousin’s sidekick, but it’s a story that has layers this time and that is all the more interesting for everyone getting to try out new variations on their heel characters.