Kevin Owens discloses why WWE decided to put the Universal Title on him over Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins
After the inaugural Universal Champion, Finn Balor, got injured, WWE chose Kevin Owens to become the new titleholder instead of Roman Reigns or Seth Rollins.
The Prince defeated The Visionary at SummerSlam in 2016 to be recognized as the first person to hold the coveted title. However, he sustained an injury during the bout and was sidelined for several months.
A fatal four-way elimination match was held on the August 29, 2016, episode of RAW to crown a new champion, which KO won with help from Triple H.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani of TNT Sports in a recent interview, Kevin Owens stated that WWE booked him to win the Universal Championship that night because they didn't want to put the title on Roman Reigns yet, and Seth Rollins was already world champion before.
"I always try to look at things as realistically as I can and I said right place right time in my career a lot and that's the truth... Universal Title, Finn Balor got hurt, we gotta put the title on somebody else. Can't put it on Roman yet, Seth's had it a while, the cast isn't ready, [I was at the] right place, right time. It just happened over and over again. It's great because I can give myself enough credit for being at that place when it was time to pick somebody and I was there right place right time, I got there myself," said Owens. [23:06-24:01]
Kevin Owens is yet to win another world title in WWE
After becoming the second person in history to hold the Universal Championship, KO lost it to Goldberg at Fastlane on March 5, 2017. He never won the title again and is yet to win the WWE Championship.
Your favourite Universal Champion???
Mine- Kevin Owens pic.twitter.com/kbA84NMufa
He was known as The Prizefighter during his early run in WWE and is recognized as a Grand Slam Champion. He and his best friend, Sami Zayn, are the reigning Undisputed WWE Tag Team Champions. They won the title at WrestleMania 39 and have successfully defended it several times.
It would be interesting to see whether Kevin Owens will become Universal Champion again.
Do you think Kevin Owens deserves another world title run? Sound off in the comments below!
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit TNT Sports and give a H/T to Sportskeeda Wrestling for the transcription.