Kevin Owens Continues to Be Booked as Disappointing WWE Champion
The once-promising WWE Universal Championship reign of Kevin Owens is continuing to fall flat.
Kevin Owens winning the WWE Universal Championship came as a shock for two reasons; he seemed like the third option behind Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins to win, and Triple H returned to help him reign supreme. It gave Owens his first world title run in WWE after holding the NXT and Intercontinental Championships.
With the Universal Title, the sky seemed to be the limit for Owens, but issues have plagued his three-month run.
When KO first became Universal champion, an alliance with Triple H seemed to be in the cards. They could challenge Stephanie McMahon and Seth Rollins, making for a power struggle angle by using their top guys to fight for control of Raw and the title. It wouldn’t be the freshest way of bringing back the Cerebral Assasin since he held an authority position for nearly three years, but pairing him with Owens would have been something new.
All this potential got squandered as for reasons never really explained by WWE, Triple H hasn’t returned since. No, this video below should not count.
Must Read: WrestleMania 33 Card Projections 3.0
By taking away Triple H from the equation, it’s difficult to really know why Owens is Universal champion. Did the former Evolution leader just decide to show up and hand the belt to someone the belt for no reason? Why Owens over everyone else? While it could have been for revenge against Reigns and choosing to betray Rollins, we don’t know if that reasoning is valid because no one has said anything after three months.
More from Daily DDT
- It’s time for Adam Cole and MJF to drop the ROH tag team titles
- Tom Lawlor talks MLW return, AEW opportunity, CM Punk’s WWE return and more
- Eddie Kingston stands to gain the most from the AEW Continental Classic
- Trish Stratus on WWE NXT would help elevate that women’s division
- Randy Orton signs with SmackDown to go after The Bloodline
During this title reign, Owens has defended the belt three times, all against Rollins. Similar to what WWE did with the Architect in 2015, they have made their heel champion into someone who can’t win without help. Case in point came during Monday’s episode of Raw.
Earlier in the evening, Chris Jericho walked out of Raw due to Owens arguing with him. Rollins ended up cutting off Y2J and getting revenge for his previous attack. This left KO without an ally at ringside for his match with Roman Reigns, which resulted in the latter man winning to get a Universal Championship shot at Roadblock: End of the Line. It was the first high stakes match that the former NXT champion had in his title reign without someone at his side, and he lost. The previous three important matches (all for the title) had Jericho interfere to help keep the belt with the best friends.
So, WWE has established that Owens, the world title holder for the Flagship Show, can’t win on his own. While the argument can be made that heels should be winning with help, booking losses still need to be done properly. It set up that for Owens to win at Roadblock, he needs help. He’s already been made into a weak champion that can’t win on his own, so Jericho would have to be booked to help him reign supreme, just like the previous three times.
If Roman Reigns beats Kevin Owens at Roadblock, it would end a title run marred with the latest weak booking of a heel world champion. Will things change on the go-home Raw?