Current Champion opens up about making his main roster debut against John Cena
John Cena has faced a lot of great WWE Superstars during his legendary career. However, there was a time when he ran out of fresh opponents to face until Kevin Owens stepped up from NXT.
Owens made his main roster debut on May 15, 2015, in an episode of Raw by answering Cena's United States Championship open challenge. But instead of having a match, KO attacked Cena before stomping on his US title as a show of disrespect. Owens would later defeat Cena in a non-title match at Elimination Chamber.
In an appearance on TNT Sports' Ariel Helwani Meets, Owens opened up about his main roster debut and explained why Cena wanted to face him at the time.
"When I worked with Cena back in 2015, it's because he needed somebody new," Owens said. "And he just felt like the roster was pretty much he had done everything he could. And then he looked at NXT and who was the top guy in NXT? It was me so he's like, 'That's the guy.' Right place, right time." (23:20 - 23:37)
John Cena would win the rematch and defeat Kevin Owens at Money in the Bank 2015. Their third and final match happened at Battleground for the United States Championship, which Cena won to end the feud.
John Cena teamed up with Kevin Owens against Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn
Kevin Owens was in the middle of his feud with The Bloodline back in December 2022 when he needed a tag team partner to face Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn. Owens found one and it was none other than John Cena.
Cena and Owens teamed up on the December 30th episode of Raw to defeat Reigns and Zayn. The 16-time WWE World Champion also extended his 19-year streak of having one match every year to 20 on the penultimate day of 2022.
The 46-year-old recently made a surprise appearance at Money in the Bank last month in London. He hyped up the UK crowd by teasing a WrestleMania before getting interrupted by Grayson Waller.
If you use any quotes from the first part of the article, please credit Ariel Helwani Meets and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.