owens

Kevin Owens is our Austin, not Ambrose

20th June 2015 by Scott Keith
Scott,

I think I'm the last person to come to this realization, but Kevin Owens is essentially the PG Era Steve Austin. Rolling out of the ring during matches, kicking people when they are down, doing all the little heel things perfectly, being a bull, and backing it up by just beating people up and laughing about it. That power bomb to that dopey musician might as well have been a stunner. He just hasn't really gotten his comeuppance yet. 

I know people want Ambrose to be the new Austin, but I feel like we already have him in Owens and it's pretty amazing to watch. Ya dig?
​Everything about Owens is awesome and if he's seriously not World champion at some time this year then there is no justice in the world.  He's just killing everything they give him.  I think we might be witnessing one of the first real rocket pushes of the post-Cena era, where we're on board from the launch and never get to the "disappointing payoff" stage​.  If they can manage to not fuck up both Owens and Ambrose for the next year, they'll have something to build on.  
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“Kevin Owens’ first match in WWE”

10th June 2015 by Scott Keith
Did it bother anyone but me how at the Chamber, the announcers kept mentioning how it was "Owens' first match in WWE"? Given how much NXT is promoted throughout WWE, how is the casual fan supposed to understand what that means and where NXT fits in?

Is there a better way to phrase that Raw and Smackdown (and Superstars and Main Event and PPVs) are the "Major Leagues"? It all comes across as incredibly messy and confusing. 

Especially since there are six WWE brand marks are all on the NXT championship.


​I would tend to think of it as NXT being WWE-affiliated, in the same way that a minor-league baseball team is affiliated with the major league club.  So you might get drafted and play as a part of the Blue Jays organization, but it's not until you get to the big leagues that you play your first game as a Blue Jay.  ​
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Two ways you can go with Cena vs Owen’s II to set up a rubber match down the line

2nd June 2015 by Scott Keith

> Option 1: You do the Bret/Diesel finish from survivor series '95. Cena suckering him into a fluke win by the way of small package makes sense. He's the smart veteran who knows some tricks.
>
> Option 2: Owens loses to the stfu, but never taps.
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> I feel either option does nothing to hurt Owens. Option 2 turns him babyface.  Probably not what they want.  I think some sort of non finish is more likely.

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Cena v. Owens

1st June 2015 by Scott Keith
Hey Scott, huge fan of your work. With Owens' clean win over the face of the company, where do you see Kevin going from here? With the rematch coming at Money In The Bank, I don't want a Cena win ruining his momentum. 
​Got a bunch of these e-mails about 5 minutes after the show.  And yeah, they've really booked themselves into a corner by throwing the rematch out there so quickly.  Ideally what you'd want is Owens running through a bunch of midcarders and doing the NXT title Open Challenge to mock Cena while he's injured and on the shelf until Summerslam and thus people will actually want to see the rematch.  Unfortunately what we're getting these days is a lot of desperation booking to compensate for ratings declining.  And another free month of the Network!  I'm pretty sure Owens will at least stay protected, however, and is now set for life as a top guy after that.  More importantly, they need to get the albatross of the NXT belt off him yesterday and give it to someone in developmental who needs it.  ​
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Kevin Owens – How to get the NXT Title off of him?

29th May 2015 by Scott Keith


With Kevin Owens being advertised for almost every Raw leading up to Summerslam and more than likely being a part of the main roster going forward how would you book him dropping the belt?

Personally I'd love Kevin to hype up getting a "WWE" contract and he fulfilled what he wanted to do by destroying one of his best friends, taking the title, and forcing "the powers that be" to give him his shot.  I'm sure we'll get a non finish between Cena/Owens at the Elimination chamber, but say that he takes the US title from Cena at the next show or Summerslam.  Owens wins and then tosses the NXT title as "he doesn't need it anymore".  

Prior to actually winning the US title Owens would keep stressing on the NXT shows that he doesn't need NXT and he's getting his shot in WWE.  He came here to do what he needed to do.  Keep have him destroying guys.  Hell,  take out Corey Graves or Regal again and force Regal to strip Owens of the title.  

This would avoid Owens physically dropping the title, as well as saving certain feuds for the main roster instead of blowing through them in NXT (Balor/Joe).  

Would this be effective in building up Owens as a heel who "would suplex his own mother to further himself in this industry" as well as "fights only on his terms" or would this bury the NXT title and possibly take away from a lot of the good NXT has been doing over the last 12 months?

If you disagree with me, how would you do it?
For me, the deal is that his character is a loudmouth bully who hurts people, so they should probably just have him get his just desserts and lose the damn thing.  Finn Balor beating him outright would be totally believeable, or more ideally Samoa Joe if he's sticking around, and you can do a lumberjack match where Zayn, Balor, RAGIN' ALEX RILEY, Regal, and maybe even Cena all get their revenge on him by preventing him from running away and letting Joe choke him out.  
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Owens Going Forward

19th May 2015 by Scott Keith

Hi, Scott.  Hope you've recovered from Victoria Day.


1- Do you think this is Owens' full-time call-up to the main roster, or was it more to promote the NXT special?

2- What do you do with the NXT title, especially with Zayn (somewhat?) injured?  Not sure it would be good to have Owens lose heading into his match with Cena at Elimination Chamber, but I don't really like an anticlimactic title change either (even if walking away to bigger/better things makes sense for his character).

3- What do you do at Elimination Chamber?  The point of Cena's reign is to put someone over big, but going from Cena/Bryan as midlevel champs to Owens/Neville (there needs to be at least one babyface champ, right?) is quite a drop in terms of prestige/name recognition.  What would Cena be doing at Summerslam?

4- How will Owens' style affect/be affected by Brock returning at Summerslam?  Will he somewhat pale in comparison to Lesnar, or would Owens' physical style make Brock feel a little less special?
1.  Pretty sure this is just a one-off deal.  They're actually making money (or losing less money) touring with Owens on top of NXT right now and they'd be dumb to end it now.  
2.  If they can pull it off, I'd have Zayn win the NXT title with help from Cena to pay off a couple of threads there, then Owens wins the US title at Elimination Chamber and drops it back at MITB.  I think Owens would probably turn babyface off that because the Full Sail crowd has been dying to turn him for weeks anyway.  Then Cena can go back to doing whatever he was going to be doing at Summerslam.  
3.  See #2.  
4.  He'd be back on NXT by Summerslam anyway under my master plan.  So it's a moo point.  
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Joe v. Owens

17th May 2015 by Scott Keith

Rumors circulated that Joe signed a 2-year deal with WWE and could make a surprise appearance at the NXT special.  With Zayn injured is there any likelihood and pulling the old “open challenge” (maybe Owens even mimics Cena) and out walks Joe!  Any shot, or this just a smark fantasy.  If not now, how do you think the WWE will actually book Joe?  Monster heel, bodyguard (muscle) for small heel, hard work face, Umaga 2???

First up, I’m out of town as you’re reading this, so I post-dated a few Q&As because I have shit internet access for the remainder of the long weekend.  So hopefully no wrestlers die before Tuesday.  Second, I finished the fifth season of SOA before I left, and HOLY SHIT is Jax one evil genius sumbitch.  Like, DAMN, you got served, Damon Pope.  And I presume by the end of the show Otto will be the Black Knight from Holy Grail, nothing but a torso on death row. Anyway, I think Joe answering an open challenge is both plausible and awesome.  The pics that have recently circulated show him looking pretty ripped, so he certainly CAN have that WWE look if he wants to.  I think the UFC-ish shooter deal is where they’d go with him, and they should probably get him to the main roster ASAP because they desperately need threatening heels.  And although he’d get a monster babyface reaction from Smark Central at Full Sail, I really don’t want Kevin Owens to lose that belt any time soon.  Three years is a reasonable title reign, I feel.

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Kevin Owens

9th May 2015 by Scott Keith
Hey Scott.

Just a quick thought on Kevin Owens. While Brock is his own  beast, do you think Owens could play a similar Monster Heel roll down the line? I think you mentioned his little kick at Riley after their match a few weeks back but I actually laughed out loud after he casually walked on him after getting the pin in their rematch this week. Plus the "are you cold promo" earlier on in the night was gold. What's your take?

Cheers
BC
​His sitdown with Michael Cole this past week was even better.  He plays a very different type of character than anyone else in WWE, which instantly makes him over and marketable.  He's the shit-talking bad guy who instantly backs down from confrontations unless he's in complete control. Or has the chance to hit someone from behind.  And then he backs up all his big talk in the ring, so you hate him even more.  He's just great.  ​
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