The Real Reason WWE Needs To Push Kevin Owens

This, arguably, wasn’t even the worst year of Owens’ career.

In 2017, Owens contrived to underperform in a programme with AJ Styles; this, after disappointing Vince McMahon with his solid match at WrestleMania 33 opposite Chris Jericho, which never once reflected its grudge premise. The GIF of that interaction, pulled from Owens’ depressing 365 special, was unforgettable. Never before has the chasm between management and the independent contractor looked quite so grim, and so insurmountable.

2019 appeared a much brighter year for a performer stripped of so much. He was set to challenge for Daniel Bryan’s WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 as his contrasting everyman. #KofiMania put paid to that, and so, with a challenger to Kofi required, Owens resumed the turncoat heel role, and resumed also his association with Sami Zayn. Over the course of a year in which so much happened, nothing mattered.

Belatedly, Owens has turned babyface. And miraculously, the WWE fanbase is willing to get behind him, likely in the faint hope that he ends Shane McMahon’s reign of terror. WWE is idiot-proof for the next five years—but there’s a sense that the company cannot afford to f*ck this up. They’ve f*cked so much up, so often, that it accounts for the disintegrating fanbase that has defined this tumultuous year.

WWE is suffering, terribly, from a brand trust standpoint.

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