9 Ups & 11 Downs For WWE In 2025
5. Kevin Owens Gets Injured
Elsewhere on this list, praise will be heaped on Sami Zayn for what he unexpectedly brought to the SmackDown midcard in the second half of 2025. If only his wrestling soulmate could have been around to try and elevate the product in the same way.
Kevin Owens' April reveal that he had to step away due to a neck injury had significant short and long term impacts on the product. A simmering feud with Randy Orton headed for WrestleMania was obviously dropped, along with any hope of a follow-on match with Zayn following their brutal showdown at March's Elimination Chamber. Effectively, his heel character bid farewell during the speech too - 'KO' was so beloved before the the serious knock that any kind of return will guarantee him a hero's welcome. Not least because of how weaker the show feels without him.
A driver of so many storylines over the past several years, Owens had already figured out how to game Vince McMahon's broken system before also making the very best of Triple H's measured, controlled one. A central figure in and around the top of the card as a babyface and a heel, the former Universal Champion looked set to end up back on top sooner rather than later - and that's if he wasn't busy shoring up the midcard instead. The lack of his presence in 2025 in particular has been pronounced - he was always the very best at making sense of the nonsensical in the 2010s. Nobody would have been better equipped for this year's artistic fall-off.