7 Mistakes WWE Have Made With Kevin Owens As Universal Champion

As if the Seth Rollins feud wasn’t bad enough, WWE have done their best to take things to a whole new level with Owens’ current storyline. He and Roman Reigns are set to wrestle for the WWE Universal Title at the Royal Rumble, and their angle can’t end soon enough.

Booking a champion vs. champion story is always risky business, and the Reigns vs. Owens situation has only succeeded in clogging the United States Title division. Things should improve now that the belt is no longer gathering dust on Roman’s shoulder, but the title has been an afterthought for months, but that’s not KO’s fault.

The duo’s first major match came at Roadblock: End Of The Line, when Chris Jericho pulled a predictable swerve by attacking his best friend and earning a DQ victory. Another limp title defence for Mr. Owens, and another way to have Roman lose without really losing.

Mick Foley rightly decided he’d had enough of Jeri-KO’s shenanigans after this, and came up with what he thought wais the perfect plan. Jericho will be suspended above the ring in a shark cage at the Rumble, but TakeOver: Toronto shows that this gimmick is far from foolproof. The Authors Of Pain’s manager Paul Ellering still found a way to influence the Dusty Classic finals by dropping a chain down from the cage, and with this weekend’s match to be contested under No DQ rules, there’s nothing stopping Y2J from doing the same.

The only saving grace is that WWE did let KO look strong by having him destroy Reigns at the end of Raw two weeks ago, but that was a rare bright spot. Come Sunday evening, the Universal Title is either going to belong to the weakest champion WWE have had in years, or a babyface nobody likes. That’s far from ideal, and WWE have months of bad work to undo if they want Raw’s top belt to feel like a legitimate prize.