Jimmy Uso seemingly caught in an awkward moment during his backstage segment on SmackDown, says WWE legend (Exclusive)
The Samoan sibling rivalry continued on SmackDown, with WWE announcing Jey vs. Jimmy Uso for WrestleMania 40. Jimmy accepted his brother's challenge in a backstage segment, the end of which was pretty odd, according to Dutch Mantell.
Jimmy Uso looked pumped up as he passionately responded to his brother's call-out for a dream singles match. While Jimmy's promo wasn't the issue, his staring into the camera for an unusually long time without saying a word didn't sit right with Dutch Mantell.
On Sportskeeda Wrestling's Smack Talk, the former WWE manager stated that the decision to stay with an intense-looking Jimmy Uso made for some awkward TV.
"That was an odd, odd ten seconds," said Mantell. "I was like, whose idea was that? You're thinking about what does it mean, I didn't get that. I don't get everything, but they may have tried it to see if there was anything of a burnback from it. He was looking right into that camera. I didn't understand it. And it went on and on." [43:40 onwards]
Dutch Mantell also believed the storyline between the former tag team champions wasn't as impactful as most fans and pundits had hoped.
The wrestling veteran fears it's too late to heat up Jimmy and Jey's feud, especially when other stories have more momentum after another eventful SmackDown episode.
"I don't think they can even do anything at this point to heat it back up. I think it has gone too far, but I do like the idea, but they would have had to have done this a long time ago." [46:24 onwards]
We're still a few weeks away from WrestleMania XL, but WWE does not have much time to attract more eyes to what initially was one of the most anticipated matches, Jimmy Uso vs. Jey Uso.
Please credit Smack Talk and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling if quotes from this article are used.
Ludwig Kaiser explains why Imperium is so over. Check out his comments below.