12 Ups And 15 Downs For WWE In 2016

4. KO Becomes A World Champ

kevin owens universal title
WWE.com

When you talk about unlikely world champions, Kevin Owens has to be on the list. Five years ago, few would have thought that a guy who wrestles in a T-shirt would be the centerpiece of WWE’s Monday Night Raw.

But here we are, and Raw is now the Kevin Owens Show. KO has held the WWE Universal Championship since late August and has established himself as a top guy in WWE. Owens has proven that he’s awesome on the mic. He’s had solid matches to amazing with Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn and others. If anything, 2016 was the year Owens proved his worth to WWE.

Hopefully, regardless of what happens to Owens’ title reign at the Royal Rumble, this will not be his only brush with being the top guy on either brand. But for fans of the independent scene, seeing the former Kevin Steen reach the top of WWE is almost surreal.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.