WWE Money in the Bank 2017: Kevin Owens Winning Briefcase a Logical Next Move

The Money in the Bank briefcase would be a great safety net for Kevin Owens, should he lose the WWE United States Championship.

As WWE prepares to deliver its eighth Money in the Bank pay-per-view on June 18, fans are beginning to speculate on who will walk out with the eponymous briefcase. Will it be Baron Corbin, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn or the man who seems to be the odd one out – United States Champion, Kevin Owens?

Take nothing away from the WWE’s resident “Prizefighter”, but the way Kevin Owens was granted entry into this match seemed to paint him as a lesser competitor for some reason. This comes across a little strange, considering Owens held the WWE Universal Championship on Monday Night Raw for a very respectable seven months.

If anything, perhaps with the exception of AJ Styles, Kevin Owens is the most justifiable competitor on SmackDown Live to be given a crack at the main event.

His status as U.S. Champion shouldn’t hinder him from progressing, which is clearly the case as he had originally been excluded from this match. Sure, he was added immediately after the field was set, but it was a strange decision to make him an afterthought. Especially after beating AJ Styles at Backlash, albeit via count-out.

Given some thought, it seems there’s no reason to slate Kevin Owens this way unless it’s to make him the dark horse going into Money in the Bank in St. Louis.

To drive this nail home, it seems Kevin Owens has been the only man not to build any significant momentum on the way to this pay-per-view as well.

Shinsuke Nakamura carries two pinfall victories over Owens since his SmackDown Live in-ring debut, AJ Styles and Dolph Ziggler have been trading pinfall victories during the build-up, Baron Corbin has been laying waste to everyone – closing out this week’s show as the last man standing – and even Sami Zayn has been making some form of impact with two consecutive pinfalls over Corbin.

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Owens still talks a big game, but he’s been on the receiving end of quite a few losses – mainly to Nakamura – and this isn’t great news for the U.S. Champion.

It’s a common trope within WWE for a wrestler to consistently lose leading up to a match that they eventually win, but in this case Kevin Owens still actually ticks the boxes when it comes to becoming Mr. Money in the Bank.

As mentioned, Kevin Owens is the WWE United States Champion, the self-professed “Face of America”. This portrays Owens as the leader of SmackDown’s mid-card, which is no small feat when you consider the talent on offer.

With Jinder Mahal and Randy Orton taking up the main event picture at least until Money in the Bank has come and gone – after which John Cena will almost definitely be jumping straight into a championship program with Mahal – the workers at Owens’ disposal in the mid-card are all extremely formidable as it stands.

Styles, Nakamura, Ziggler, Zayn and Corbin aside, you’ve also got rising stars like Luke Harper, Erick Rowan and Tye Dillinger who just need the slightest of nudges towards some realm of championship gold and they could be ready to become big stars.

The disadvantage to that, of course, is that when the time comes for Owens to finally drop the championship, there’s a sea of talent ready to swallow him whole before he gets a chance to either reclaim the title or move onto bigger action.

That is, unless he finds himself an ironclad “get out of jail free card” in the form of a contract for a guaranteed WWE Championship opportunity whenever he sees fit.

At the moment, it’s looking like Shinsuke Nakamura is going to be the next man to tango with Owens after his recent successes, and if that’s the case, there aren’t many people who would bet against the as-of-yet undefeated “King of Strong Style”.

Giving Kevin Owens a direct route to the main event picture when that time does come, whether it’s with Nakamura, Styles or anyone else, seems like a great way to eradicate any fear of Owens being lost in the shuffle when he loses the U.S. Title.

He may not fit in now with Mahal as the face of the blue brand, but the sheer fact that the “Modern Day Maharaja” is WWE Champion is a testament to the fact that you really can’t tell what the lay of the land is going to look like in a month.

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What do you think? Should Owens become Mr. Money in the Bank, or should WWE opt for a less obvious winner in someone like Zayn, Corbin or even Ziggler?

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