7 Mistakes WWE Have Made With Kevin Owens As Universal Champion

The Seth Rollins feud wasn’t just a flop for WWE’s inability to paint The Architect as a sympathetic character, but also the myriad of destructive booking practices used throughout.

The title change was the start of it, but things didn’t get much better over the ensuing months. The nature of Owens’ Universal Title win effectively doomed all of Rollins and Owens’ subsequent interactions, as the distraction of a potential Triple H interference made it tough to enjoy the matches on their own merit.

It started at Clash of Champions, when Owens defeated Rollins through interference from Chris Jericho and Stephanie McMahon’s referee switch. Triple H didn’t show up, but he didn’t need to: the threat of him doing so was more than enough.

Then Hell In A Cell rolled around, and it was the perfect opportunity for WWE to finally give Owens a definitive win. The cell should theoretically prevent outside interference, but this is rarely the case, and so it transpired in October. Jericho found his way into the cage, attacked Rollins, and Owens retained with his friend’s assistance.

The Kevin Owens vs. Seth Rollins feud had the potential to be one of the year’s best, but it wound up on the opposite end of the spectrum. Two of the company’s strongest performers were left spinning their wheels through muddy booking decisions, and both emerged from the feud weaker than when they’d walked into it.