Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!

Jey Uso is no longer afraid of Gunther, who has been beating him in nearly every opportunity any time they get their hands on each other. Uso is the babyface and the sentimental favorite, and it seems as though a win at WrestleMania is a foregone conclusion so he can not only achieve the dream of becoming a world champion, but also avenge what happened to Jimmy Uso, overcome the obstacles, prove that the good guy can win, and so on and so forth.

It’s a very basic story and it feels almost guaranteed that that is the outcome we’re all going to see unfold. But does it HAVE to happen that way, or is there room for an argument that Gunther should retain the World Heavyweight Championship?

My question for you today is “Do you think Jey Uso needs to win at WrestleMania?”

Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.

As far as my answer…

By and large, I do think at this point, WWE has set it up where the benefits of Jey winning far outweigh the benefits of Gunther winning. None of this is what I would have booked, for the record. I wouldn’t have gone with Jey challenging for a world title, nor would I have had their storyline play out like this.

I’ll admit, there’s a part of me that wants to see Gunther retain, if not just because it’ll buck the obvious prediction. Plus, I think Gunther’s lost a lot of his luster. He never should’ve dropped the Intercontinental Championship to Sami Zayn last year, as that ended up being pretty much all for nothing, and his King of the Ring crown was basically wasted, followed by a world title reign that came later than it should’ve and featured less interesting challengers than he needed.

At this point, Gunther doesn’t feel like the same Ring General from two or three years ago. He just feels like another generic heel they can cycle in and out. So for him to retain the title at WrestleMania, that could go a long way in reestablishing him as someone to watch out for and not count out just yet, rather than someone who crossed off being a world champion and may never reach that status again.

But that’s only if the fans are willing to kind of reset. WWE would have to do something drastic with Gunther immediately—like the Raw after WrestleMania immediately—to prove that things will be different. If it feels like he’s just still champion and he’s going to do the same stuff with the same challengers, I think fans will reject this as WWE “shoving him down our throats” and just being upset over the hero not persevering because WWE wanted to piss people off.

Effectively, too many kids are going to be disappointed if Uso doesn’t win, too many people will say that it’s because of racism that the white guy retained, too many people will think WWE did it just to shock audiences, and all sorts of reasons that will lead to them complaining. On the other hand, if Jey wins, the complaints become that it was predictable and that he doesn’t deserve to be a world champion.

Given the options, the former is much more vitriolic and negative in comparison. The latter is a problem that would probably be rectified rather quickly. If Jey isn’t doing well as champion, they’ll take the title off him and he’ll never win it again. I don’t know how they’ll rehab Gunther—because that’s going to have to happen regardless but will especially be true if he loses the title—but some time off could do him justice by making the fans miss him.

Doing booking decisions that will lead to more fans being mad or annoyed than happy at the outcome requires that there’s a payoff that makes it worthwhile, as well as enough other things that distract them from it. Considering how most of this year’s WrestleMania has been thrown together at the last minute and is rather sloppy, I don’t think WWE should mess with that too much. I already think John Cena’s going to beat Cody Rhodes and Charlotte Flair’s going to beat Tiffany Stratton. Too many heels winning makes fans look at WrestleMania and feel like they got picked on or that they were beaten down with negativity, rather than having a fun time. The world’s in too much chaos right now to give everyone too much of a downer.

Even if I wouldn’t have been setting this up in the first place, I do think Jey Uso pretty much has to win at WrestleMania 41 at this point.

What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!