The D’Amore Drop is a recurring guest column on Uncrowned written by Scott D’Amore, the Canadian professional wrestling promoter, executive producer, trainer and former wrestler best known for his long-standing role with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, where he served as head of creative. D’Amore is the current owner of leading Canadian promotion Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling.

Last week I wrote that Cody Rhodes doesn’t “need” to win Sunday’s big title match at this year’s WrestleMania 41 finale, but that’s not my opinion of the hero going into Saturday’s WWE World Heavyweight Championship match.

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Jey Uso needs to defeat long-reigning champion Gunther. If he doesn’t, I fear he could be limited to being a “B+” player permanently. But, if he wins — and I think he does — he has everything he needs to not only be an A-list player, but one of the very rare “A+” level stars.

Ignore the folks online agitating that this world title match is not the main event of WrestleMania 41. WWE has put world title matches on before that main-event slot dating back to Bruno Sammartino’s never-to-be-broken 2,803-day reign as the WWWF champion in the 1960s.

Jey’s rise to world title contender and WrestleMania headliner reminds me of the “YES!” movement that Bryan Danielson rode to superstardom a decade ago, or what’s happening with Joe Hendry right now in TNA. The fans didn’t wait to be told Jey Uso was a mega-star, they told the WWE he was elite level right now, right this second.

Now, WWE is doing what wrestling does best — they’ve taken a hero the fans believe in and put him in real danger. As Dutch Mantel used to say, you can’t have a dragon-slayer if you don’t first have a dragon. Gunther is perhaps the scariest dragon the WWE has had in years — an absolutely intimidating, 100% believable, unbeatable killer.

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Gunther has beaten Jey more than once. He’s scared Uso. He beat his brother Jimmy to a pulp right in front of him. Then, just days ago, WWE had Jey throw down his fear — and Gunther’s smug persona cracked … just a little. The dragon felt a moment of fear.

Professional wrestling has every kind of storytelling, but the very best moments — the moments that fans never forget — are the kind of moments when a new hero steps forward and slays the dragon.

This is the moment: Jey has to beat Gunther on Saturday.

He has to become the WWE’s brand-new dragon-slayer.

The other main event of WrestleMania Saturday is the triple threat between Seth Rollins, CM Punk and Roman Reigns.

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All three competitors carry powerful motivations going into this match, and we have really intriguing story-building around Paul Heyman. I probably don’t have to say it, but Heyman is one of the greatest of all time contributors to professional wrestling: Great manager in WCW, led the ECW revolution in the ’90s that changed the entire business for the better, has reinvented himself over and over, and in every role has enriched the product he was involved in.

In this storyline, Heyman is torn between his Tribal Chief, Roman Reigns, and his best friend and someone he owes CM Punk. So now the question is: Will Heyman screw over his longtime friend Punk and stay loyal to Roman Reigns? Or is he going to be compelled to side with Punk after all these years?

The most intriguing finish? After teasing both directions — he does neither! Heyman’s character — and Paul in real life — is a survivor. Someone who thinks his way through situations and extracts the best possible outcome for himself.

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Maybe after growing angry at Punk for putting him in this position, and Reigns for not understanding it, he screws them both and sides with Rollins?!

We’ll see on Saturday!

Speaking of Seth, every now and then in wrestling, you get it so “right” you look like a damn genius. Two decades ago, a teenager named Colby Lopez drove from Iowa to Chicago to attend a seminar I was running. I was blown away by his talent, charisma and just how badly he wanted to chase him dream.

I was at TNA back then, which was at the time owned and ran by Jeff Jarrett. Two days later in Orlando, I went up to Jeff and said, “Do you trust my eye for talent … because over the weekend I met a kid who is the next Adam ‘Edge’ Copeland!”

We had Colby wrestle a tag match at a TNA taping against LAX. It was a squash match so Colby had no chance to show what he could really do, but Jeff said if I felt that strongly, to go sign the kid. Once I found Colby, he dropped his head and said he had just signed to start with Ring of Honor.

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I was bummed for TNA, of course, but happy someone else saw what I saw — a kid with “it.” Everything. When I look at Colby — Seth Rollins — on WWE television today, I still see that same passion for professional wrestling he had as the teenager who set off at 2 a.m. to drive seven hours to my wrestling seminar.

Let’s see if I get this one right, too.

There’s a kid on the indies, only a couple of years into his career, that I have my eye on. I’ve never spoken to him, but he’s one of the most exciting prospects I’ve seen in a long time. His name is Isaiah Moore.

Remember the name.

Even with two nights of WrestleMania, there just isn’t room for everyone. I’ve been there — having to choose who’s left off the card is one of the toughest parts of the job.

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I feel for WWE Women’s U.S. Champion Chelsea Green and others who might miss out, not because of talent, but because of time.

I’m thrilled to announce my Maple Leaf Pro promotion’s May 10 pay-per-view at the Maple Leaf Gardens will feature NWA World Champion Thomas Latimer taking on the super-talented Stu Grayson.

The NWA title hasn’t been defended in the famous wrestling building in decades, since the days of Terry Funk vs. Harley Race.

Latimer tore the house down at our March event against Bishop Dyer, formerly Baron Corbin of WWE. Check out that full match above.

Even being in the business for as long as I have, WrestleMania still has the power to make me feel like I was when I was 12 years old and standing in that line to get into WrestleMania 3 back in 1987.

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I remember clutching my ticket so tightly and being beyond excited to be there.

If you look closely before the legendary Macho Man vs. Ricky Steamboat match, you can see a kid reach so far over the barrier that he falls over flat on his face. Thankfully, security had compassion and helped me climb back and enjoy the rest of the show.

I hope the 12-year-old in every wrestling fan enjoys this WrestleMania.