WWE: Will Kevin Owens Get His Revenge On Bobby Lashley?

Bobby Lashley defeated Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose in a Triple Threat match to win the Intercontinental Championship, but Lashley will have to watch his back whenever Kevin Owens make his return to WWE.

Three months ago on the episode of WWE Raw after Super Show-Down in Melbourne, Australia, Kevin Owens took on Bobby Lashley in a singles match that wrote KO off of television. Throughout the match, Lio Rush stood on the outside of the ring as Lashley’s new hype man, berating Owens by calling Lashley a “real athlete” with the implication of those remarks being clear.

In the end, Lashley emerged victorious, but the most noteworthy events occurred after the match. With the crowd completely against Lashley and forcefully in Owens’s favor, these next moves signified a heel turn from “The All Mighty”.

Lashley smashed Owens’s knee against the ring post repeatedly, and while this was partially designed as an angle to put KO off television due to real-life knee injuries that have required months of rehab, it also served as a way of making Lashley a monster heel.

To many in the WWE Universe, this encounter was a double-turn, turning Owens babyface for the first time in his main roster career. Though fans have grown used to Owens being a “Prizefighter” and one of the most enigmatic wrestlers on the roster, given his multiple beefs with authority and his heinous betrayal of Chris Jericho in 2017, the audience was increasingly supportive of Owens in the summer and fall of 2018.

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Owens’s injury could create even more sympathy for his character upon his return, especially since Lashley has only become more despised these past several months. Lashley’s reign as Intercontinental Champion promises to be intriguing, as he and Rush have done a fantastic job of becoming big-time heels on Raw.

There are several candidates to eventually defeat Lashley for the IC Title – after he presumably holds it for a few months as a way of reminding fans of his talent in the ring and as a champion – but I can’t think of anyone more interesting than Kevin Owens.

The story is right there, and all WWE has to do is take advantage of it whenever Owens returns. It seems like Owens could be on his way back sooner rather than later alongside best friend Sami Zayn, who tore both rotator cuffs. Both men could turn babyface together and go on a memorable babyface best friend run after it was Owens who initially convinced Zayn to turn heel, and it could all start with a huge win by KO.

Imagine Owens returning on the Raw after WrestleMania (or sooner!) to face Lashley for the Intercontinental Championship and winning in shocking fashion to an immense roar of approval from the audience, as a despondent Rush looked to a shocked Lashley in the ring.

Owens cannot let Lashley’s deed go unpunished, as it was, in kayfabe, a despicable attack that left Owens broken and away from his job for several months.

Lashley’s first Intercontinental Championship win was simultaneously out-of-nowhere and a long time coming, and whenever it does end, it would only be fitting for his reign to go out with a bang against the man he destroyed on Oct. 8.