Its easy to blame the announcers for using hyperbole to over-exaggerate something in wrestling, but when they hyped Kevin Owens knocking off 15-time world champ John Cena in his first WWE match, it was well-deserved hype. That was the kind of show-stealing, jaw-dropping debut match that every wrestler dreams of, and that is not hyperbole. Owens and Cena had a slugfest that included countless high-impact moves, with both men heading to the top rope on multiple occasions. Cenas offensive repertoire is well known, but he unloaded everything in his arsenal Sunday night, giving the match a big fight feel. Owens, on the other hand, was an unknown commodity to anyone who doesnt watch NXT or has followed the independent circuit, so all eyes were on him and what he could bring in the ring. And did Owens ever deliver. In addition to the cannonball and pop-up powerbomb weve seen him hit in NXT, Owens attempted a jumping top-rope moonsault and hit a superkick, a senton bomb, a second-rope reversed suplex and a Steenalizer (package fallaway powerbomb). As the announcers noted, fans saw moves theyve never seen in a John Cena (or even WWE) match before. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LJ1TXol1yU If you werent impressed, then the problem lies with you. Hats off to John Cena, who helped make a star Sunday night. And heres to more of Kevin Owens tearing up WWE in the weeks and months to come.
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.
