Stone Cold Steve Austin was thrilled Kevin Owens asked him for his finisher
The Stunner has become a perfect finisher for Kevin Owens, who is portraying a modern-day everyman babyface and anti-establishment bad-ass in WWE.
When Kevin Owens stood up to Shane McMahon earlier this year and tore into the self-proclaimed “Best in the World” on WWE SmackDown, wrestling fans went wild. They had been waiting for someone to take Shane to task for stealing screen time from deserving superstars like Apollo Crews and Liv Morgan, and Owens was the voice of the fan in his bitter rivalry with WWE’s most recent authority figure.
In 2019, Owens has been using the Stone Cold Stunner as his finishing maneuver, replacing the Pop-Up Powerbomb with it. This has fit him perfectly, since Owens has embraced being WWE’s “everyman” babyface hero. He’s getting so over now that it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him winning the Royal Rumble next year.
Owens didn’t just suddenly start using the Stunner, however. As you’d expect, he asked Stone Cold Steve Austin for his permission to use the legendary maneuver.
And Austin was thrilled to see someone finally making good use of it.
Owens told Corey Graves all about his encounter with Austin on the announcer’s new show “After The Bell”.
Quote via WrestlingInc.com’s Robert Gunier:
"So I went to Steve and I asked him if I could use it, and he was very happy that I asked him. You know, me giving him the respect of it but more than anything, he was happy that someone asked him because he’s like, ‘You want to use it as a finisher ?’ I’m like, ‘Yes’. He’s like, ‘God, it’s about time; I can’t believe nobody’s tried this yet. I can’t believe no one had come and asked about using the stunner as a finisher. It’s a great finish, like, why not?’ He then went on and said some people use it and it means nothing.”"
Per Owens, “The Prizefighter” had Austin’s permission to use The Stunner before this year but only decided to unveil it as his finisher and a key part of his character in 2019. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect.
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You may recall that Owens used The Stunner at the 2016 Royal Rumble Pay Per View in a Universal Championship match against Roman Reigns, during a match in which Chris Jericho infamously hung precariously above the ring in a shark cage. Reigns kicked out of The Stunner, much to the crowd’s surprised, and also had to deal with a pair of brass knuckles from the heelish Owens.
We won’t be seeing Owens bringing out brass knuckles again (at least, I don’t think so!), but we can continue to cheer him on as he stuns heels into the oblivion in 2020.