9 Wrestling Heels Who Were Totally Justified
5. Kevin Owens The WWE
Kevin Steen named his firstborn after his favourite wrestler, Owen Hart. He was a WWF/E kid, eleven years old in 1995 when he saw Shawn Michaels and Diesel wrestle for the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania XI. Steen's first language is French, and he literally learned how to speak English by watching the WWF.
Debuting as a professional wrestler in May 2000, he'd spent the last few years of his independent career watching as all of his peers were signed by WWE, watching, as Bryan Danielson became Daniel Bryan, as Tyler Black became Seth Rollins, as his best friend and running buddy El Generico became Sami Zayn. That's the way the storyline went, anyway, that, while he got married and started a family, all of his friends were getting ahead of him, getting rich and famous.
Fast forward a year or two, and Steen finally signed with WWE, adopting a stage name to honour his son. On the very night that Kevin Owens debuted in NXT, began wrestling for the company he'd idolised since he was a kid, his best friend Sami Zayn won the NXT title. Owens was the first to congratulate Zayn, and the last to leave the ring with him.
Then came the ambush, Owens violently slamming Zayn down to the ramp outside the ring and finally delivering a vicious powerbomb on the ring apron. He'd deliver another nasty beatdown the following week, leading to an angry challenge from his former best friend which Owens refused, unless it was for the NXT Championship. At TakeOver: Rival, Owens destroyed fan favourite Zayn for the title, two months to the day since his NXT debut. Three months after that, he was debuting on Raw and facing down John Cena - and two weeks after that, he was cleanly pinning Cena in his first televised match on the main roster, at the Elimination Chamber event.
He'd learned more than just English watching the Attitude Era: he learned to make a name for yourself, no matter who you have to step on, and manipulate events to get yourself where you need to be. As Samoa Joe found, a few months later, in WWE, nice guys finish last, if they finish at all.
Kevin Owens (the character) is a massive tw*t, it's true: a man who loves to run his mouth, take shortcuts, and act like a pr*ck any chance he gets. Hes also a prizefighter who works to support his family, the most important thing in his life. Excelling at this job, for this company, to make sure his family never want for anything... that trumps any friendship. It has to... and any one of you would have done the same.