10 Surprising Things We Learned From 'WWE 365: Kevin Owens'

1. Year Of Hate

Kevin Owens Vince McMahon
WWE

It speaks to the complex dichotomy of WWE that the biggest takeaway for viewers from a year spent tracking and tracing the every move of one of the company's top stars was typically damning of the organisation.

With good reason, Kevin Owens portrays the veneer of a competent and confident performer. The augmented reality of a WWE-mandated documentary proved though, that his demeanour was far more of an act. The Steve Austin text may have granted Owens reprieve from his perfectionist inner demons last night, but on evidence, it would take merely one more monosyllabic moan from the Chairman to reduce him to rubble yet again.

The piece aimed to suggest that by virtue of his (admittedly awesome) headbutt on Vince McMahon, Owens was back at the top of the tree, but the very release of this piece ironically came just minutes after the younger McMahon easily chased him off screen with a steel chair following a patronising RKO. He'd never looked lower on the totem pole.

Mindful of the need to offer soundbites and platitudes for a puff piece he'd still rather get made than shelved, Owens himself called his last 365 days 'extreme'. But it takes little introspection to realise how painfully normal a year in the life this is for a modern WWE superstar. More features such as this would be welcome, but it's hard to see any of them ending differently.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett