4. Owens Taps?!?!
Put aside the incredible match between Kevin Owens and John Cena. That will get its kudos later. This isnt even about Owens losing the match. This is solely a gripe about Owens tapping out clean. WWE has something special in Kevin Owens. Whether everyone gets it or not, the company has a brash, talented performer who can handle a microphone and back up everything in the ring, and then some. Cena clearly recognizes this, as hes now had three classics with Owens, giving him tons of hard-hitting offense. But for Owens who is being built up as a bruising heel to just tap like that a handful of matches into his WWE career is shortsighted. WWE easily could have had Owens pass out in the STF, preserving a no-tap-out distinction, making Owens even tougher in fans eyes and still having Cena win cleanly (if thats what Vince desperately wanted). Having Owens tap, especially in a United States Championship match, was a poor decision. Its not severely detrimental to him, but there were other, better options available.
Scott Carlson
Contributor
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.
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