Kevin Owens' 2018 went from "Kami" to kamikaze as the former 'Prizefighter' found himself absurdly mishandled across both brands before an injury served as more of an escape hatch than a setback.
As Sami Zayn's co-goon on SmackDown Live, Owens was foiled by AJ Styles, Shane McMahon and Daniel Bryan so many times that he lost his job on the show. 'KO' and 'The Underdog From The Underground' subsequently migrated south to Raw, but their careers rapidly veered in the same direction.
Split off for humbling and humdrum programmes with substantially bigger men, Zayn was flattened by Bobby Lashley whilst Owens was forced to bump for Braun Strowman so often he actually managed to win a match getting launched from a steel cage.
In the only saving grace of his desperately sad face, Owens' exit did at least trigger a heel turn for post-WrestleMania returnee Lashley, but even that was too little too late.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 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 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, 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
