Return of the Prizefighter - Already a
Lost Cause?
Smackdown Live this week was an important
episode building up to Fastlane. The Hardy Boyz returned, R-Truth retained his
title and a certain Mr Kevin Steen returned a.k.a. Kevin Owens. Appearing to be
baby face in the vignettes which aired on the weekly episodes of both brands
before his return, it was somewhat shocking to see Kevin Owens come back in a
heelish fashion, replacing Kofi Kingston in the WWE Championship Match at
Fastlane. As a result of the huge momentum Kofi has gained since the gauntlet
match on the go-home episode of Smackdown before the Elimination Chamber and
the subsequent Elimination Chamber match itself where he came up just short
against champion Daniel Bryan, it is thought that the decision was made to
delay the Kofi Kingston underdog storyline until WrestleMania in April. But if
Kevin Owens match is being rushed (rather appropriately for a show called
Fastlane), does he really have a chance at winning the WWE Championship?
The easy and most popular answer here is to
say no. Kevin Owens may have been the original planned successor to current
champ Captain Planet but the recent spike in popularity for Kofi Kingston has
caused plans to change and once again, Kevin Owens is set to be a Prizefighter
without being a prize winner. Now, WWE does love to keep us guessing so maybe
we will see a title change at Fastlane and KO will win the big one; but don’t
hold your breath. Even if he was to win, he would most likely be a transitional
champion, just keeping it warm for Kofi to take at ‘Feelgoodmania.’
I am not usually one to believe if a
superstar doesn’t win a title, they aren’t being used correctly but in this
case, I believe changing these plans for Kevin Owens could be hugely
detrimental to his future on the blue brand. All we must do to see how wrong
this could go is to look at the saddest story on Smackdown Live – the fall and
double fall of Shinsuke Nakamura. The King of Strong Style lost his feud to AJ
Styles over four different pay-per-view bouts including a last man standing
match and after all of this, he was never truly the same. Relegated to the US
title picture, the shine was truly off the Japanese Rockstar’s apple. As of
late, he has been teaming with Rusev, another neglected star on the roster who
needs a storyline.
Kevin Owens dangerously treads the line of
going the same way as Nakamura and Rusev if he does not have an impactful
return. Failure to beat Daniel Bryan while his character represents the
everyday man puts him at great risk of total derailment. It wouldn’t be long
before we saw him relegated to the mid-card, thrown into a feud with the US
champion or worse, thrown into a franken-tag-team with someone like R-Truth or
the soon returning Sami Zayn. Owens and Zayn were an interesting pair before
their respective injuries, and this could happen again, but KO certainly
deserves much more. Kevin Owens was once the face of NXT who beat John Cena on
his main roster debut while holding the black and yellow brand’s title. He was
once the Universal Champion and Triple H’s own chosen one after that infamous
pedigree The Game hit on suspected favourite Seth Rollins. He was also once a
US Champion in a botched feud with AJ Styles but this is not something we need
to see again. When two guys don’t click, they just don’t. Surprisingly, Styles
and Owens just never did.
Kevin Owens said in his vignettes and on
Twitter that his time off has made him hungry for success and that he ‘needs to
fight again.’ But this girl believes that fighting is not enough for Owens to
stay relevant this time. He needs to win again, he needs to become that
Prizefighter we all loved back when we were first made aware of him in WWE. He
needs to beat Daniel Bryan and he needs that title way more than any feel-good
moment Kofi winning could ever give us. Giving Kofi the title over Owens would
be incredibly short-sighted, at least in my opinion.
- @CaEWrestling
- @thre3count
