WWE Gimmicks That FAILED The HARDEST Every Year (1985-2025)
9. ‘Face Of America’ Kevin Owens (2017)
Kevin Owens was fresh off being roasted by Vince McMahon for his match vs. Chris Jericho at WrestleMania 33 when he began his 'Face Of America' gimmick on the 18 April 2017 edition of SmackDown. Bizarrely, a more clean cut, suited and booted version of KO claimed that he was everything the United States stood for after becoming US Champion.
His new guise sort of made him seem like a politician who'd decided to give this wrestling malarkey a try, but it fell on deaf ears. WWE found out first hand that crowds didn't equate being United States Champ with being from the country. In fact, people barely cared about that at all. They just wanted to see title holders booked properly in fab feuds and kickass matches.
Plus, Owens was at loggerheads with his old buddy Chris Jericho, and he was Canadian too. So, a pair of Canadian workhorses were contesting the United States belt and one of them was pretending to be from New York not Quebec. Except not really - Kev was still proudly Canadian but believed he needed to kid on he was from the United States. Or something.
This only lasted a few months before everyone moved on. Owens wasn't talking about being the new 'Face Of America' by the end of his title reign, and he certainly didn't bring it up afterwards. The concept wasn't actually too bad in theory, but it was handled with typical latter day Vince clumsiness and wouldn't get off the ground before his whims took him and his trio of brains somewhere else.
Thankfully, KO was a good enough performer to survive. Maybe McMahon deserved that head butt from Kevin in September!