Facing a crossroads in their WWE careers, it was time for Jimmy and Jey Uso to start being “selfish.”

For years, the twin brothers had dominated the WWE’s tag-team division, winning multiple championships and twice being named WWE “Tag Team of the Year,” but unless they ditched the characters that had gotten them to that point, they may have never fully reached their potential.

“It was about that time,” Jimmy Uso told Yahoo Sports. “We started to feel that the Siva Tau, the friendly Usos deal was kind of running low.

“We hadn’t even touched the microphone at all in our career and I feel like we got over just on in-ring performance. No one had ever really heard us talk. I grew up watching Stone Cold, watching The Rock, just like everybody else, Shawn Michaels, Triple H. All these dudes could talk, we have to talk to be the complete package.”

In reality, it was the perfect storm for The Usos to make a change. In 2016, WWE decided to undergo a brand split, creating two separate rosters for their “Raw” and “Smackdown Live” shows. The Usos, who had just gone through a storyline angle with real-life cousin Roman Reigns, were going to “Smackdown Live” and bringing some new heat with them.

“It was all clear, all in the making, it just worked, it was very organic,” Jey Uso told Yahoo Sports. “The crowd was 50-50 with us, when we were with Roman. It stuck with us. We just went 100 with it, let’s do it, the time is now. It’s a fresh slate, it’s time to play ball. What’s the next chapter of The Usos. Boom.”

That negative reaction mirrored what The Usos were feeling each and every week.

“I was like ‘OK, I kind of like this,’ because I was tired of trying to put a smile on my face,” Jimmy Uso said. “I wanted to let the people know how we were really feeling. We really felt like we were the best tag team and getting overlooked. Put us in the ring with anybody and we’ll put on a five-star match. I’m not trying to be cocky about it, but that’s how you have to have the confidence to put on every night.”

For the first time in their careers, Jimmy and Jey Uso were “turning heel,” and it didn’t take long for the crowd to take notice.

“In the beginning of the heel Usos, we were just showing that aggressiveness, that viciousness that people gravitated to,” Jey Uso said. “Then, once people started saying ‘I like how they work as heels, they have personality as heels’ and we started to roll with it, it was like, OK here’s the microphone. Now we’re rolling with the microphone, ‘Oh, I didn’t know they could talk, I didn’t know they talked that way.’”

Thus, the Uso Penitentiary was born.

Joshua and Jonathan Fatu come from a long line of Samoan wrestlers. Their father, Rikishi (Solofa Fatu Jr.) wrestled during the WWE’s popular “Attitude Era,” their familial ties to the industry also include Umaga, Yokozuna, Rosey, The Tonga Kid, Samu and even The Rock.

That tradition helped shape the first iteration of The Usos tag team, but fans – and Jimmy and Jey – wanted something more.

“We added our own flavor,” Jey Uso said. “It kind of was always the Samoan thing. Barefoot, Samoan tights, we added our own footprint for the fans. [It was always the same] for my dad, Umaga, High Chief, Wild Samoans, Yoko, Tonga Kid, Manu. The Usos are in their own lane now. We’re tatted up, we speak. That barrier’s broken, the sky’s the limit and there’s two of us.”

View photos Jimmy and Jey Uso leap over the top rope to take out the New Day at WWE’s Fastlane event. (Photo courtesy of WWE) More

The colorful war paint was gone, the Siva Tau in the rear-view mirror, traded in for Nike Air Force 1s and a new real swagger.

“People started to feel us because we were real,” Jimmy Uso said. “This wasn’t an act. I really wear Air Force 1s, that’s really me out there, that’s really my brother out there. That’s what people got with and really understood, they started saying ‘I like that, I can get with it.’”

Story continues