The COVID-19 pandemic shook the world in 2020, and that included WWE, which transitioned to virtual crowds. It was during the second half of the year that Jey Uso began to breakout as a singles star; Uso surprisingly became the first wrestler to challenge Roman Reigns after his Universal Championship victory at Payback 2020 to start his historic multi-year championship reign.

Speaking with "Gorilla Position," the now "Main Event" Uso commented on his career changing during the pandemic, "I definitely 'leveled up' during (the) pandemic, cuz 2020 there was no one there. So, it's literally Paul [Heyman], Hunter (Triple H), me, Roman; that's the most interaction I've ever had with them, more intimate than ever, uce." The two-time Tag Team of the Year Slammy Award winner recalled that everyone had to elevate their performance without a live audience — specifically learning to be more expressive — almost like acting on a soap opera.

Uso revealed Reigns was meant to have a feud with "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt, but he was inserted into that role instead. "We just was leveling up every single week. Things were evolving every week to where: we did this last week, we need to say that, we need to go here. And that was every single week, uce. All the way up to past Sami Zayn, every week it was like that: what we doing? What we doing?" Uso also noted that it could be difficult to maintain emotion when there is a loud live audience, which he was able to hone in on without an audience