8 WWE Storylines That Must Happen Before 2017
2. Kevin Owens: Antihero
Kevin Owens has been one of the most compelling performers in WWE for well over a year now.
Despite the viciousness and violence that he has brought to the squared circle, his nonchalance and sarcasm makes him an enthralling vocal performer. His appearance endears him to fans who look like him. He can be nasty and mean but he can also be charming and humorous. All of those ingredients make for a performer fans want to endorse, and typically do, as he steps through the curtain every Monday night.
Owens is a bit stagnant as the brand extension sets in. He has worked the top babyfaces in WWE so many times that there are few fresh and interesting programs left to explore. Why not take an approach that has not been visited since the heyday of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and let Owens loose as something of an antihero?
Too often, franchise player John Cena and prospective top star Roman Reigns are scrutinized for being generic babyfaces fans cannot understand or relate to. No one is realistically as good or pure as those guys. Everyone has a side of themselves that is nasty or sarcastic, arrogant or even malicious. Owens has demonstrated all of those traits and thus, is more over with audiences on a personal level than Reigns could dream of.
Today's society is not breed on clear good guys and bad guys. Television shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones are centered around characters neither wholly good or evil and have been immensely popular and successful as a result. They are fractured, imperfect and fans invest in them emotionally because they can understand the moral trials and tribulations they encounter.
Owens is the perfect candidate to introduce that missing element to WWE programming beginning this year and carrying over well into the future.