In South Florida, there are only 6 Waffle Houses. Living in the Dade County area, there aren’t many Waffle Houses around; there’s only one, and I never paid much attention to it. I’ve frequented Denny’s more than any other renowned diner over the years, and that’s not much. It’s also the only diner I was privy to other than IHOP. That is, until Jey Uso specifically, and the Waffle House exclusive that ignited the Jhea saga, particularly.
Recap
MonJey Night Raw/Monday Night Mami was in Dayton, Ohio, at the Nutter Center. That night marked one week since the return of Rhea Ripley, who’d been gone since April 15, 2024, after vacating the WWE Women’s World title due to a shoulder injury suffered at the last stop of the Liv Morgan Revenge Tour. Rhea injured Liv’s shoulder almost a year prior on July 24, 2023, so Liv’s philosophy of eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, shoulder for a shoulder took out Rhea.
During Rhea’s absence, Liv won the Women’s World title, infiltrated Rhea’s family, the Judgment Day, and worked to seduce Dominik week-to-week. That came to a head July 8th, when, after Dominik defeated his dad Rey Mysterio for the first time in a tag team match with Liv as his partner, he hugged Liv in excitement, backed off, she straddled him, they went down to the mat, and… THIS IS MY BRUTALITY… Mami’s back.
July 15, 2024
July 15th, Dayton, Ohio. Rhea opens up the show, Dominik comes out, and Liv appears on the titantron, and the two women exchange words and set a match for SummerSlam. While Dominik attempts to apologize, another man who started shooting his shot once he got drafted to the Red Brand late September 2023, became an important player once she returned, Main Event Jey Rizzo.
Source: WWE Monday Night Raw, July 15, 2024 - Dayton, Ohio
Rhea Ripley’s single and ready to mingle. Uce tryna holla. And his name isn’t Mrs. Pearly, and this isn’t Friday After Next, but you can call him Mr. Rizzo, “You see Mami, tell her I said hai.” All that spurred a match between Jey and Dominik that took place later that night. Liv stuck her nose in the match to help Dominik, found herself on top of him again, Rhea stormed out, and Liv booked it out of there. Dominik lost, and it's the consecutive moments after the match that led to the Waffle House t-shirt being made.
Source: WWE Monday Night Raw, July 15, 2024 - Dayton, Ohio
The glorious Raw exclusive inspired several Waffle House illustrations, which Rhea acknowledged on the socials, except the September 4th edit.
- July 16: @sistertonin’s Twitter — “Jhea finally went to Waffle House”
- July 18: @iamlng’s IG — “‘I think he actually likes me…’ | The Date Jey & Rhea”
- July 29: @kimkuzuri’s IG — “Jey & Rhea 🧇💕”
- September 4: @kingocho3k’s Twitter — Jey & Rhea at Waffle House
- September 13: @iamlng’s IG — “Like Jack & Rose… 🍔🥪🖤 | J&R | because Rhea is art…”
- October 27: @kimkuzuri’s IG — “Eat Up”
Several illustrations, but never an official t-shirt… until now!
The front is stylized after Waffle House’s iconic logo, my designer friend Matt (@msc880) created the Waffle House logo flip, “Holla At Ya Uce,” in the classic yellow blocks, black letters, and white block backdrop, which adorns the front.
The vibrant Waffle House illustration was designed by my other designer friend Yuan (@yuane_arts), who illustrated the Jey Loves Mami V1 design. Inspired by iamLNG’s Waffle House illustration (the red lipstick), Jey’s Waffle House order from the Raw exclusive, along with his interview with Muscle Malcolm, and the first of two segments with Jey and Rhea from the September 16th episode of Raw in Portland, Oregon, that I adore.
Other details: purple highlights at the ends of Jey’s mullet, black lipstick on Jey’s cheek, R+J on Rhea’s cheek (smudged on the t-shirt, coincides with how the lipstick got on Jey’s cheek *coughs*), Yeet pendant around Rhea’s neck, and Jey’s black “Jey Loves Mami!” shirt…*cues shameless plug* that you can cop for $20, and match with Ucey Jucey himself!
The Jhea Waffle House composite sketches made by Yuan:
Source: Instagram — @yuane_arts
I mean, I’m just tryna be there, you know. I think Jheanators deserve Jhea Yeetality merch. If y’all need merch to put on, Holla At Ya Ucette. You know what I’m saying? We can take it slow, you know. Wear it to Waffle House. Y’all probably ain’t never been to Waffle House though, but like you can now. The shirt’s a little steep, but it’s premium. The quality’s premium, alright!
So what’s the order? You guys look like you’d buy like 10 Waffle House tees, and 2 Jey Loves Mami’s, I mean, but I’m all about that triple Jey Loves Mami life, uce. Double Yeetality Country. You know what I’m saying? Yee F’N Tality, uce. We gone get along just fine though, uces and ucettes.
Next Stop. Waffle House. 💛🖤
The Jhea “Holla At Ya Uce” Waffle House-inspired t-shirt, stolen seven times by scam sites! The block is hot, and so is the tee. Available now!
Whenever y’all ready.