WWE: Kevin Owens is the perfect pick to end the reign of Shane McMahon

The Aug. 6 edition of WWE SmackDown saw the violent final encounter between Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon prior to their high-stakes match at SummerSlam this coming Sunday night.

Last night’s WWE SmackDown was the final chance to build towards the upcoming SummerSlam pay-per-view and one of the biggest matches at the biggest party of the summer did just that with the final encounter between Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon before Sunday.

The past few weeks have seen Owens try to derail the reign of terror caused by Shane O’Mac, who has been abusing his power and taking TV time away from countless superstars.  The two will square off at SummerSlam, but if KO loses to Shane O’Mac, he will be forced to quit the WWE.  Last night saw The Kevin Owens Show featuring KO’s SummerSlam opponent, and needless to say, fireworks broke out.

Owens wanted to up the ante with Shane at SummerSlam by challenging him to put his career on the line just as Owens has done.  Instead of just answering the question right away, Shane backpedaled and stalled by bringing up the point that if Owens’ temper gets the better of him at SummerSlam, Owens will be disqualified and Shane would win, sending Owens right out of the WWE in the process.

KO questioned Shane O’Mac’s manhood for not putting his career on the line, but things eventually broke down when Elias intervened and attempted to start a two-on-one attack.  Owens was able to take Shane out of the picture initially to turn his attention towards Elias, who he took out on the outside.  After a stunner on the announce table to Elias, however, Owens was taken off of his feet by Shane, who then began to pummel KO.

Shane beat Owens down and eventually turned the announce table over on top of Owens.  He wasn’t finished there, however, and he dropkicked a chair against the head of Owens before emphatically screaming that Owens is done after SummerSlam.  The deck appears to be stacked against KO on Sunday, but that would make a win over Shane O’Mac even sweeter.

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Everyone knows how great Owens has been as a heel over the years, but his current babyface run has been excellent as well.  It was starting to feel stale with him as a heel, but this version of KO feels like the type of superstar that can accomplish big things.  And starting by putting Shane O’Mac in his place and ridding the WWE universe of Shane as an over-saturated on-screen character would be a great start.

Owens as an edgy babyface is the perfect person to put an end to this authority reign of Shane.  Not to mention, a big win at SummerSlam could elevate Owens to another level moving forward and he could find his way back into the WWE Championship picture regardless of whether Kofi Kingston retains his title or Randy Orton wins the title on Sunday.  KO is starting to slightly resemble what CM Punk was like as an edgy babyface years ago, and that’s a good sign.

That’s one big element that the WWE has been missing over the past few years, but it appears as if it’s returning.  Most babyfaces that have taken off in recent years don’t have that edge and swagger that Punk had or that Owens has now.  KO can butt heads with authority figures, drop Punk-like pipebomb promos, and everything in between to help further this edgy babyface character that could lead to more emerging in the future.

Of course, all of this would be for not if he loses at SummerSlam, but that doesn’t feel like a possibility at this point.  It feels like it’s time to move on from this Shane O’Mac reign that has been going on for several months now.  KO can make the most out of this opportunity and it could help launch his career to a level it hasn’t reached before, especially as a babyface.

SummerSlam could be the night that Shane O’Mac gets KO’d and there isn’t a more appropriate superstar to do so than who he’s facing on Sunday.