
The Usos, comprising real-life twins viz. Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso, have established themselves as one of the greatest tag teams in WWE history. They sported traditional face paint as an ode to their Samoan culture early on in their careers. It became a hallmark of these twins to a point where the higher-ups in WWE were reluctant to allow the Usos to get rid of it.
Jimmy Uso recently explained the exact rationale behind the top brass of WWE not initially being keen on viewing the Usos without their face paint. ‘Big Jim’ told Peter Rosenberg on Cheap Heat that the office was majorly worried about not being able to tell the Usos apart from their cousin Roman Reigns had they discontinued wearing some color on their faces. The older of the Usos was baffled by that logic.
When we did the switch, we were like, ‘Yo, we don’t want to wear no paint.’ And they told us — the higher-ups at the time — they were like, ‘You need the paint. How the hell are we going to tell y’all apart from Roman?’
Jimmy Uso via Cheat Heat podcast
Even though he understood that the three of them kind of looked alike, one could still tell them apart. The Usos finally got the nod to transition into a villainous duo in the summer of 2016. On the September 6 episode of SmackDown, Jimmy and Jey got squashed by the up-and-coming American Alpha.
Jimmy Uso recalls being told in WWE that if The Usos didn’t wear face paint, it would be hard to tell them apart from Roman Reigns:
— WrestlePurists (@WrestlePurists) October 26, 2025
“I’ll never forget, when we did that switch — you know, the character changes — you’ve got to evolve around this business. When we did the switch,… pic.twitter.com/H3EN8weQhP
Having gone through that ignominy, the Usos first shook hands with Chad Gable and Jason Jordan but soon showed their true colors by viciously attacking the babyfaces. It marked the beginning of a totally new character arc for the Anoa’i clan wrestlers.
The Usos also hold the record for hanging on to the tag team gold for the longest period of time by any team in WWE. They had those straps for over 600 days and dropped the titles to Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in the main event of WrestleMania 39’s first night.
Jimmy Uso elaborated in the aforementioned conversation with Peter Rosenberg that there are times even today when he’s mistaken for Jey Uso by some in WWE. ‘Big Jim’ couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that even his closest homies, who have seen the Usos perform their entire career, get it wrong sometimes in terms of distinguishing between them.
Some netizens argued that there was indeed a time when it was difficult to tell the Usos apart when they wore that face paint. However, years of seeing them team up in the later stages of their careers have certainly enabled the majority of the passionate WWE-viewing audience to differentiate between Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso.
Jimmy Uso says he’ll sometimes still get mistaken for Jey Uso backstage:
— WrestlePurists (@WrestlePurists) October 26, 2025
“It's still going on today. On my kids, on my wife. And you know what? Even the closest homies that been there our whole career—‘Hey, Jey.’ And I'll just stop, bro. And I'll just look at them. They're like,… pic.twitter.com/0rmXaMcPdQ
In fact, the physical features of the two are more parting than ever. Jey hasn’t looked identical to ‘Big Jim’ in quite a while, and especially since his ‘Yeet Master’ gimmick took the fans by storm. The twins experienced a personal heyday at last year’s WrestleMania when they went one-on-one. However, the reception to it was the polar opposite of what they would’ve envisioned.
The current on-screen differences between Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso have stemmed from weeks of discord. Jimmy hadn’t taken too kindly to Roman Reigns pulling Jey aside and instilling a semblance of “Little Roman” in ‘The Yeet Master’. ‘The OTC’ has repeatedly asked his cousin to focus on himself rather than looking after his friends’ backs.
Reigns would be mighty proud to know that the San Francisco native is going to challenge CM Punk for the world heavyweight title at Saturday Night’s Main Event. ‘The Master of Yeet’ earned this opportunity by winning a No. 1 contender’s Battle Royal on this week’s Raw.
The former ‘Right Hand Man’ betrayed his brother Jimmy Uso by dumping him to the outside simultaneously with LA Knight. ‘Big Jim’ had saved Jey twice from getting eliminated during the course of the matchup. But Jey seized the moment while he had it. The latter is now headed to Salt Lake City to give Punk a run for his money with the vacant world title up for grabs.
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