Kevin Owens is Being Screwed Up by WWE

What happened to Kevin Owens?

Kevin Owens came onto the scene in a big way, feuding with John Cena before many fans even knew his name. Now, just days before SummerSlam, Owens is in the middle of the card and desperately needs a win to prevent his stock from falling even farther. So how exactly has KO gone from a potential main-event heel to a mid-carder? Let’s start from the beginning.

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WWE brought Owens up to the main roster on May 18, 2015 to “answer” John Cena’s U.S. Open Challenge, but instead of taking the challenge, Owens delivered a swift pop-up powerbomb and set up an apparent feud for the coming weeks. Ok, so far so good. A few angry confrontations later, and we finally have the match; Owens vs. Cena at Elimination Chamber. Nice, everything’s still going strong. Then, one of the best matches of the year culminates in yet another pop-up powerbomb, and Owens pins Cena clean in the middle of the ring. 1. 2. 3.

Woah.

Kevin Owens, the guy who had bounced around the indie scene for 10 years, the guy who had only a handful of main roster appearances, and most importantly, the guy who had never had a match in a WWE ring, just pinned the company’s most prominent figure over the last decade. Quite a start for the big man.

Maybe it was really going to happen. Maybe WWE really believed they struck gold, and in order to push Owens as a main-event heel, they put him over Cena in his very first match. He’s got the mic skills, he’s amazingly athletic for someone his size (or really any size), and he has that look of someone you just want to hate. So there we have it, WWE’s newest big-time heel has arrived. Right? Wrong.

Everything went down hill. And I mean EVERYTHING. Owens’ Elimination Chamber victory was followed by a loss to Cena at Money in the Bank, which, to be fair, is understandable. It’s standard protocol to even the score for an eventual rubber match when there’s a high-profile feud such as this one. But what happened after that is nothing short of baffling.

Cena defeated Owens yet again at Battleground, but not only did he beat him, he made him tap. This was perhaps the worst booking decision of 2015. Owens probably should have won this match to cement him as a legitimate contender, but at the very least he should have lost via pinfall, or even DQ. But by no means should it have even been a possibility to have Owens tap. Making a guy look this weak after having him pin the poster boy for WWE cleanly just two months prior is a travesty. All momentum is lost. But did it get worse for Owens? Of course it did.

Owens began gloating about his victory over Cena, trying to legitimize himself by bragging about the victory. Sorry Kevin, but now not only do you look weak, you look pathetic. Two straight losses to the same guy, including one by submission, completely negate the first win and then some. So now he just looks like a loser who is clinging to his one accomplishment since coming up from NXT. But did it get worse for Owens? Of course it did.

Following the two losses, Owens seemingly lost interest in being in any match whatsoever. He started just walking away from the ring altogether. Sure, this set up the cute little promo with Cesaro telling Owens that he should do what he does best and “Walk, Owens, walk”, but any shred of legitimacy that Kevin Owens had after the consecutive Cena losses is now out the window. Part of the appeal of Owens from the beginning was that he talked trash and backed it up. But now? Not so much.

In no uncertain terms, WWE has buried Owens worse than any superstar in recent memory. If they don’t believe in him as a main-event heel, then that’s their choice, but I don’t understand why they would give him the initial victory over Cena if that were the case. I pray that Owens beats Cesaro at SummerSlam, and that’s not a knock on the Swiss Superman. If Owens comes up short after talking trash yet again, he may become just another “intimidating” jobber like Bad News/King/Cosmic King (?) Barrett. Cesaro is developing himself into a potential championship contender, but he needs to take the loss just this once in order to salvage Kevin Owens’ career.

Has WWE messed up with Kevin Owens?

Next: Kevin Owens Will be U.S. Champion After SummerSlam

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