10 Most Vicious WWE Grudge Matches Ever
4. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens - NXT TakeOver: Rival
The former Kevin Steen made an impact when he debuted on NXT back in December 2014, turning on his best friend Sami Zayn literally ten minutes after he'd finally won the NXT Championship and delivering a powerbomb on the ring apron that Zayn sold like his dad had died before he was born. The story went that the fourteen-year veteran, now named Kevin Owens, had seen all of his best friends in the indies - Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn - signed to WWE first. He'd lagged behind them, getting married and having another baby. Now he was there, he needed to make up for lost time and provide for that family. He wasnt going to wait in line for that lucrative NXT title opportunity.
It was a classic heel turn, and one that naturally infuriated Zayn, who demanded that Owens face him one on one for retribution. Owens agreed, waited until the in-ring contract signing and then refused to put pen to paper unless the match was for the title. An irate Zayn played right into his hands, insisting that General Manager William Regal amend the clause in the contract there and then, and the match that the cold-bloodedly scheming Owens had wanted all along took place on the next live NXT special, TakeOver:Rival.
Exactly two months after his first match in NXT, after quarter of an hour of reasonably back and forth action, Kevin Owens ended Sami Zayn's fairytale title reign almost before it had properly begun with a succession of four powerbombs that saw the referee stop the match before he could administer a fifth. He just snapped, crushing Sami Zayn's hopes and dreams in a Lesnaresque display of vicious, unhinged brutality. It was a car crash... and, of course, set up what would follow: the expected feud that should form the spine of their careers in WWE.
Everyone knows that Zayn and Owens is this generation's Punk and Cena, this generation's Hart and Michaels, this generation's Hogan and Savage.