Jey Uso moved one step closer to the 2026 WWE King of the Ring final on last week’s SmackDown, outlasting LA Knight, Finn Balor and Royce Keys to advance to the semifinals. The win sent LA Knight home and kept Uso on track for a possible title shot at Night of Champions on June 27.
The result matters now because it gives Uso another major singles victory at a time when fans are already pushing back hard against his rise. The YouTube video of the win had more than 70,000 dislikes when it was checked, and this was at least the third time a major Uso victory drew the same kind of reaction online.
Uso’s latest advance was not an isolated burst of momentum. He beat Austin Theory in less than 30 seconds on Raw in March 2025, won a battle royal on Raw last fall to earn a shot at CM Punk for the then-vacant World Heavyweight Championship, and later beat Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 41. He held that title for 51 days before WWE shifted him back into other lanes.
That shift has not softened the reaction. Uso reunited with Jimmy as a tag team by December 2025 and is now once again playing second fiddle to Roman Reigns in The Bloodline, even as he keeps moving deeper into major singles competition. WWE appears to be banking on the same character surge that once carried him into the spotlight, but the online response suggests a growing portion of the audience is no longer buying the push at face value.
Next for Uso is Je’Von Evans in the final four. The winner will meet the winner of Oba Femi versus Dominik Mysterio in the KOTR finals at Night of Champions, and that path now carries more than bracket value for WWE. It will show whether Uso can turn another advance into momentum, or whether the backlash follows him into the semifinals and hardens around the finish line.
