4 Reasons why Jey Uso is not on the WWE Backlash card
WWE Superstar Jey Uso is not on the match card of the 2025 Backlash PLE. This is rather bizarre since The Yeet Master is the World Heavyweight Champion, and he won the belt at WrestleMania 41 after winning the 2025 Royal Rumble. Here are four reasons why the crowd of St. Louis won’t get to ‘yeet’ on May 10.
#4. Jey Uso doesn’t have any credible opponents right now
Jey Uso was in the title picture against the former World Heavyweight Champion, Gunther, since January this year. While this polished their feud, which received its conclusion at WrestleMania 41, the focus of other top stars on RAW got diverted to other pursuits.
John Cena, the runner-up of this year’s Rumble, won the Elimination Chamber match and dethroned Cody Rhodes to become the new Undisputed Champion at ‘Mania. Seth Rollins, CM Punk, and Roman Reigns got involved in a Triple Threat match. Damian Priest and Drew McIntyre were moved to SmackDown and got involved in a feud of their own.
As for The Judgment Day, the Intercontinental Championship became the faction’s primary focus. Thus, owing to the top stars getting locked away in their respective storylines, Jey Uso doesn’t have any credible opponents right now. While two wrestlers did show their interest in the championship, they made their move too late.
#3. The stage isn’t set for Logan Paul versus Jey Uso
Last week, Logan Paul launched a surprise attack on Jey Uso backstage. The Maverick had highlighted his intentions to go after the World Heavyweight Championship before RAW moved to Netflix. However, his main challenge was aimed at Gunther. Additionally, instead of trying to forcibly insert himself into the world title picture like Rhea Ripley, Paul began a feud with AJ Styles.
Their feud saw a lot of back and forth before the YouTube star defeated The Phenomenal One at WrestleMania 41. While the former United States Champion did make a move last week, with just one more episode of RAW left, their feud hasn't developed enough for a big match.
It should also be noted that while Mr. Yeet tried to address Logan Paul this week, he was interrupted by Paul Heyman, who pitched Seth Rollins as a World Heavyweight Championship challenger. While The Visionary faced Uso for the title on RAW's main event, his plan to win the title got sabotaged by Sami Zayn and CM Punk.
While this was an explosive main event, it didn’t further the story of Jey Uso, but that of Zayn and Punk against Rollins and his crew. Lastly, The Maverick attacked the World Heavyweight Champion from the front row of the crowd when RAW went off air instead of the regular showtime, suggesting that their feud is still slowly developing.
#2. Backlash already has a stacked match card
Backlash will have several great matches, with John Cena’s Undisputed Championship defense against Randy Orton being the biggest one of them. Penta El Zero Miedo will challenge Dominik Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship, with Finn Balor possibly lurking around and waiting to attack either superstar to help or betray Dominik.
It will also feature another big draw where Pat McAfee and Gunther will settle their differences after The Ring General attacked him and Michael Cole on RAW after ‘Mania. Lyra Valkyria will defend the Women’s Intercontinental Championship against her former mentor, Becky Lynch. Lastly, Jacob Fatu’s maiden title defense match would be a Fatal Four-Way against top stars like Drew McIntyre, Damian Priest, and LA Knight.
Thus, with such a stacked match card, there wasn’t much room for Jey Uso to defend the World Heavyweight Championship. Additionally, his ‘Mania victory against Gunther didn’t go down well with a huge section of the WWE Universe, who demanded a better finish. Thus, Triple H needs to properly develop a feud and deliver a high-voltage match for the fans.
#1. WWE could be saving Jey Uso for upcoming big shows
WWE has more big shows which are scheduled after Backlash. Saturday Night’s Main Event will take place on May 24, 2025, which will be followed by Money in the Bank on June 7, 2025. Both events will be big draws, especially MITB, where the company could use its formula of making the winner of the briefcase cash in on the same night.
This immediately raises the stakes of the whole show, with stars either winning a WWE World Championship, like Kane in 2010, Dean Ambrose (AEW’s Jon Moxley) in 2016, or Drew McIntyre losing his golden weapon because of CM Punk last year. Thus, the Stamford-based promotion could be reserving Jey Uso for these events.
