"Tumultuous" was the word used by Tom Phillips to describe the last week or so of Kevin Owens' life within WWE, but as usual, the 'Prizefighter' was underserved by his masters.
His fleeting NXT return at TakeOver: WarGames generated one of the decade's biggest pops before the booking of the Survivor Series threatened to flatten it completely. Raw, fortunately, went much better, but 'KO' will always be the cat Vince McMahon kicks when he's p*ssed off with things - what's good now can't be forever.
This, rather fittingly, teed up Ric Flair's appearance at the start of the show. Owens was first to juxtapose the glory of 'The Nature Boy' with the cheap and nasty talk show staging, but Flair said more in the space between his scripted lines than half the words he managed to remember...
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
