Kevin Owens Admits He "Didn't Enjoy" WWE Universal Title Run
"I didn't take the time to enjoy any of it," says Kevin Owens of his Universal Title reign.
Kevin Owens has admitted to not taking much pleasure from his run as WWE Universal Champion, saying he "didn't take the time to enjoy any of it."
Interviewed by talkSPORT's Alex McCarthy, Owens said that he couldn't enjoy the run as he was too focused on making it as good as he possibly could, admitting that he'd like another reign:-
“What I mean the most when I talk about I’d love to have another Universal title run to make things right is for myself. My mindset has changed a lot since I was champion and back then I didn’t take the time to enjoy any of it. I was just too focused on trying to make it good, make it better, make it as good as it can be and I really, really didn’t enjoy it the way I should have.”
KO was Universal Champion from August 2016 to March 2017, when he lost the strap in a 22-second squash defeat to Goldberg at Fastlane. This, understandably, sparked outrage amongst certain sects of the fanbase, though Owens doesn't feel bad about how he dropped it:-
“I don’t really care how it ended. It ended the way it ended and they all have to end at some point. At least it ended for a reason. There was a reason for it ending beyond ‘hey, Owens isn’t doing a good job.’ Because that wasn’t the case. Whether it should have ended that way or not is another discussion altogether.”
A three-time United States Champion since losing the Universal strap, Owens hasn't held gold since July 2017. His last Universal Title shot was a Last Man Standing loss to Roman Reigns at Royal Rumble 2021.
Here's what KO had to say on potentially taking the belt back:-
“My wife was instrumental in making me realize that. My parents as well, even guys like Shawn Michaels, Triple H and even Vince McMahon himself, they’ve all told me that it seemed like I forgot to enjoy this part of things and if you’re not going to enjoy being the champion, then what are you going to enjoy in this industry? I’d love to be able to get back there just so I can enjoy it properly, but we’ll see. All I can do is do my best to stay in that story and hopefully I get to take it from Roman or somebody else in the future.”
Roman Reigns is currently 247 days into his reign on top, having taken the Universal Title from The Fiend at Payback 2020.