The Real Reason WWE Needs To Push Kevin Owens

Kevin Owens has already excelled within the tiresome TV formula on this week’s SmackDown. It was typical fare—Owens cut a promo, and was interrupted by Drew McIntyre, resulting in an impromptu match—elevated by his performance. He played it disingenuous on Tuesday, but not in a smug way: adopting a panicked, hysterical cadence, he promised that we’d get through Shane McMahon’s absence together, making a total mockery of the idea that the show can’t go on without him in a featured role.

The match with McIntyre was very good too. A lowkey belter, there was a real, snug oomph to everything—a welcome departure from the stylised WWE norm. It was worked safely, but it didn’t much feel like it. Owens brings a universal physicality to his work, bridging the gap from the office to the public with the well-crafted illusion of danger.

Owens has a quick, instinctive wit that rounds out his act in a way that doesn’t feel tacked on. He’s naturally funny, taking swipes at the stupidity of the Wild Card rule and generally reacting to the infuriating power structure around him with glorious, George Costanza-level meltdowns.

Owens was foiled by his versatility in the heel role. He was instructed to play sociopathic, passive aggressive…chickensh*t? It was a tonal nightmare of a confused presentation, and it was difficult to receive him as a credible threat. He wasn’t merely a generic, ineffective heel: he was every version of a generic, ineffective heel. The hope, conversely, is that Owens’ versatility will get him all the way over in the lead babyface role. If he is handed pretty sh*tty comedy material, he has the delivery and improvisational skills to transcend it. We know he can put on bangers.

Kevin Owens isn’t the only hope—but hopes are fading at a frightening canter.