Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn with the roles flipped should be fun

If you had a time machine and traveled back to, say, 2012 and told a Ring of Honor fan who just watched Kevin Steen and El Generico destroy each other in the company’s fourth Ladder War match at that year’s Final Battle show that these two would have a match at a WrestleMania as Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, you would probably get two reactions.

First, the person would obviously freak out upon learning that jumping through time was possible. Once the shock of that news wore off, they would then respond with a mix of astonishment over this feud reaching such a high point mixed with concern over it devolving into a watered-down version of what they just saw.

In both cases, this person would be right, especially after you told them that Steen/Owens would be the babyface in this match and Generico/Zayn would be the heel. That is indeed what we are getting at WrestleMania 37, but the inverted dynamic actually adds to the intrigue surrounding this match.

The roles are flipped in the latest Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn match.

In terms of character development, these are two human beings on diverging paths that have reached an intersection over the last few episodes of SmackDown. Owens, once a ruthless, results-driven prizefighter who enacted deplorable deeds always patted his partners on the back in order to find the best spot to stick the knife, has spent the better part of the last two years attempting to atone for his past actions, even as that past comes back to haunt him.

Sami Zayn is the latest and greatest manifestation of these past demons.

Zayn — who is now lightyears removed from the scrappy, affable, honorable grappler who captured the fans’ hearts in NXT (the antithesis of everything Owens was) — has now devolved into a paranoid, conspiratorial, wormy antagonist who mines for controversy where little or none exists, a process that began with him foregoing his ethics to save Kevin Owens from a diving Shane McMahon way back in 2017.

Knowing that, is it any surprise that Zayn — who has been rebuffed by babyfaces and heels alike whenever he brings up his theories — would hope expect Owens, who has experienced his own storyline issues with WWE management as recently as 2019, to understand his perceived plight? And isn’t it understandable that Zayn would lose it once Owens responded to his concerns the same way everyone else has? After all, this was a monster that Owens somewhat created.

Of course, that connection is why Owens tried to calmly get through to Zayn in the weeks prior to this match announcement. It’s even why Owens briefly entertained Zayn’s conspiracies on the March 19 episode of SmackDown before Zayn flipped out and Helluva Kicked Owens when Owens wasn’t looking. And it’s also why Zayn delivered a sincere apology to Owens for that attack on “The Kevin Owens Show” on this past Friday’s episode of SmackDown; even after that attack, Zayn still wants (and needs) Owens to believe and support him. Instead, Zayn will have to fight his old friend on WWE’s biggest stage.

Some fans will argue that WWE randomly reheating the Owens/Zayn feud and flipping the roles is another example of WWE filling out the midcard of its pay-per-views at the last minute — though Owens and Zayn sort of planted the seeds for this at this past February’s Elimination Chamber show — but given how much shared backstory these two have, the company could’ve announced this on the WrestleMania pre-show, ill-advised as that would be, and the heat for this one would still be there, even if you’ve only followed their WWE history.

While the match doesn’t carry the gravitas that their wars in ROH or even their classic at Battleground 2016 did (a lot of that is thanks to how WWE has booked Owens and Zayn over the last few months), there’s still more than enough juice here for these two to make this as compelling as possible. Of course, Jake Paul’s unwelcome appearance on next week’s SmackDown could squeeze all that juice out like The Incredible Hulk grabbing a Capri Sun pouch, but let’s not dwell on that yet.

For now, let’s appreciate what Owens and Zayn have given us over the last several weeks with the inverted dynamics while salivating over the sort of match they could put together for WrestleMania. Yes, there’s a non-zero chance that WWE gives them 10-12 minutes to tell a basic “Sami avoids KO before KO gets a hold of Sami and beats him” story, but even a scenario like that or one (which could result in Zayn finally realizing that there’s no conspiracy and Owens was just the better man) where Zayn slowly rediscovers his fighting spirit could be a good first step in another long-term story between the two that could end with Zayn reverting back to his babyface ways.

Imagine that: a storyline where KEVIN OWENS aids Zayn in reclaiming his lost soul (which simultaneously mends the rest of Owens’). It may not be how ROH fans in the early 2010s envisioned this story turning out nor how viewers who saw them in NXT expected these renewed hostilities to go, but that doesn’t make this possibility any less captivating.