8 Wrestling Rumours & Reactions (July 21): WWE Targeting ROH?
7. Split Opinion On Kevin Owens
Rumour: According to Dave Meltzer, there's a group of higher-ups that secretly want Kevin Owens to fail. One of his theories is that Cena's merchandise took a noticeable hit after his loss at Elimination Chamber, and as a knee-jerk reaction they booked Cena to go over in their feud. Also, there is a clear division of power as Vince McMahon slowly steps aside.
On one side is Triple and Stephanie, and the other -- in particular -- is Kevin Dunn, who has felt threaten by their presence. As a result to stunt Triple H and Stephanie's progress he's been attempting to bury any NXT call-ups to make them look incompetent.
Reaction: I do stress these are all very much theories, but they do make sense. Owens has lost the NXT title, ran from the 3-way match last week, and the 6-man tag match this week. Much more importantly he's lost back-to-back matches against Cena, including tapping out at Battleground. His strong start has definitely slowed quite a bit.
In regards to the power divide, aside from Rusev and Owens, the NXT call-ups have had a rough time. Emma, The Ascension, Bo Dallas, Adam Rose, and Xavier Woods (pre-New Day) all struggled mightily. It's possible there's a huge divide between NXT writers and main roster writers, but people like Kevin Dunn do have influence.