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There has been a great deal of talk about All Elite Wrestling recruiting top talents from around the wrestling world. With the benefit of Tony Khan’s deep pockets, Cody Rhodes’s creative vision, and the momentum of All In, AEW is equipped to draw in bigger, better talents than a start up promotion would ordinarily be expected to have access to.
The fledgling promotion has already highlighted a focus on tag team wrestling. The Young Bucks are not only star recruits, but executive vice presidents who are sure to keep tag teams a priority.. Rey Fenix and Pentagon joined the mix at the Double or Nothing Rally in Las Vegas, in addition to Best Friends and SCU having signed on.
Reports suggest that The Revival asked for their WWE release, too, and while their recent push may compel them to stay put, might there be another, even better established WWE tag team that could head to AEW soon?
This article looks at four reasons why The Usos may be AEW bound.
#4 They’ve done all they can in WWE
It’s a testament to The Usos' longevity in WWE that they have worked such a variety of opponents, including The Shield, The Hart Dynasty, The Corre, The Wyatts, and The Real Americans, right up to more contemporary units like New Day, The Bludgeon Brothers, and The Bar.
Along the way, they’ve collected five tag title reigns, starred in a Hell in a Cell match, teamed up with Roman Reigns toward the top of the card, and worked as both faces and heels.
Barring a huge paradigm shift in which WWE features tag teams as main eventers, it’s hard to imagine The Usos really bolstering their resumes at this point. Sure, they might garner sixth, seventh, or eighth tag title reigns and work newer teams, but that doesn’t so much feel like changing their legacy as adding more of the same to it.
AEW presents a fresh slate of opponents in a pro wrestling company that The Usos could help build from its early stages.
#3 Their legal issues are putting a glass ceiling over them
The Usos haven’t entirely kept their noses clean during their WWE tenure. First Jimmy faced DUI and related charges; more recently, Jey suffered an arrest of his own for similar reasons. Things intensified when Jimmy was arrested after reportedly standing up to a police officer who had pulled over his wife, Naomi, for which he suffered charges of disorderly conduct and obstruction of justice.
Particularly in today’s family friendly WWE environment, the company places an emphasis on its workers being good role models. As face characters, there is arguably even greater responsibility on the Usos' shoulders, not to mention that they’re now locker room veterans who probably ought to know better than to get into trouble.
As such, there’s the real possibility that WWE is going to hold back on pushing the Usos for a while. They’d like better their prospects of winning tag titles and getting featured in storylines with a move to AEW.
#2 The emphasis on full-time tag teams
The Usos have enjoyed a nearly decade long tenure on the WWE main roster, which has included winning tag team championships multiple times and often being featured as one of, if not the single top team in the company. That includes these past two years on SmackDown when, between The Usos, New Day, The Bar, and The Bludgeon Brothers, the tag division has been deep and of consistently high quality.
However, a team like Shane McMahon and The Miz winning the tag titles at the Royal Rumble underscores how WWE tends to look at tag teams. They may get a decent chunk of TV time and get to put on good matches, but at the end of the day, WWE tends to feature singles stars and think nothing of pushing a makeshift team of two stars over full-time teams to serve storylines.
With The Young Bucks, Lucha Brothers, and Best Friends already in the mix for AEW, besides rumors that Anderson and Gallows may jump when they’re able, and with The Revival possibly interested, too, it makes a fair bit of sense that The Usos would see more potential to thrive in AEW than in WWE at this point.
#1 A working relationship with Cody Rhodes
The Usos' long tenure on the main roster saw them more than once interact with Cody Rhodes. On occasion, they were partners in crime against opposition like The Shield. They also worked as opponents in different incarnations of Rhodes’s team with his half-brother Goldust — all of that besides sharing time in the locker room for many years.
While Rhodes and The Usos aren’t known to be the closest of friends, there’s every reason to think they respect each other. Moreover, their kinship over being talented performers who have often been passed over by WWE make a business partnership to follow a totally logical conclusion.
Rhodes snagging The Usos might not seem like AEW’s biggest acquisition, but introducing the Anoa'i family to AEW could be a deceptively big play, and potentially open the door for other cousins to make their way out of WWE and over to the new AEW fold in time.
