Kevin Owens: 5 Potential Rivalries For The WWE Intercontinental Champion

Fans were overjoyed to see Kevin Owens defeat Ryback at Night of Champions to become the Intercontinental Champion, earning his first title victory since making his debut on the main roster. 

Owens dominated NXT as champion for the first half of the year, and gave John Cena some of his finest matches ever this summer, coming out with his hand raised on the first occasion, and so many believed he deserved something to keep his momentum going after ultimately coming up short in that rivalry.

It's safe to assume that Ryback will be invoking his rematch clause at the upcoming Hell in a Cell Pay-Per-View on October 25th, but it's doubtful that he will emerge with the Intercontinental Title around his waist. Love him or hate him, Ryback's reign was less than stellar (to say the very least), completely diminishing the hype surrounding the title after Daniel Bryan won it at WrestleMania.

Ryback's leg injury, along with poor booking against The Miz and The Big Show, definitely played a part, but now that Kevin Owens represents the mid-card as Intercontinental Champion, all seems well for the once-prestigious legacy of the title.

Once Owens gets past his rematch with Ryback, he'll need some more competitors to face off against to make his title reign more interesting, so today we'll be counting down the top five superstars to potentially face Kevin Owens for the Intercontinental Championship somewhere down the line.

With the ‘Bulgarian Brute’ coming out of a prolonged feud with Dolph Ziggler, who could very well be turning heel himself soon enough, Rusev needs something to get himself back into the limelight he was in when he ran rampant on the WWE as the undefeated United States Champion towards the start of the yea. 

An opportunity against the Intercontinental Champion would help him along the way.

WWE aren’t normally interested in heel vs. heel rivalries, especially when a title is in question, but there is certainly bad blood between Kevin Owens and Rusev, as seen from every single time they’ve teamed up with one another. 

Owens has walked away from Rusev on multiple counts, including a triple threat match, so there is enough there to justify the two feuding even for a short while. The mic work between the two men while Owens engaged in a rivalry with John Cena was great too.

Rusev has carried himself as a determined, yet often times comical, combatant within the ranks of WWE, as has Owens, so a face turn wouldn’t be out of the question if WWE didn’t want two villains to face off, but they shouldn’t need one anyway. 

Even if it’s just for a few weeks to give both men something to do before moving on to bigger things, this feud would be very intriguing, and the two men would surely do damage when the time came to fight.