What if Kevin Owens moves to SmackDown Live?
Kevin Owens is a former Universal, NXT, and United States Champion. The list of guys who can claim these accomplishments is incredibly short—in fact, it’s limited to just Owens and Seth Rollins. Despite not having the traditional WWE look or an especially flashy move set, he’s a tremendous talker and a skilled practitioner when it comes to performing in the ring.
And yet, since moving from SmackDown Live to Raw after WrestleMania this past spring, Owens has above all else felt under utilized.
Owens and Sami Zayn went from a featured heel tandem SmackDown to cannon fodder for the likes of Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley on Raw. All the more so since Zayn went down to injury, Owens has come across as lost in the shuffle.
His credentials and obvious talent make him too special to ignore completely. Just the same, he keeps losing big matches, and the oddball booking choice for him to quit and then show up the very next week seem to underscore that Raw doesn’t know what to do with him.
So what if Kevin Owens goes back to SmackDown Live? This article looks at five potential outcomes.
5. A program with Daniel Bryan
Kevin Owens spent his last half-year on SmackDown feuding with commissioner Shane McMahon in an issue that went from a war of words to a Hell in a Cell Match to a WrestleMania tag team showdown.
The last leg of that journey saw Daniel Bryan go from conflicted bystander to McMahon’s tag team partner and an enemy to KO.
Owens and Bryan never had a proper one on one match in WWE, in part because Bryan was officially retired for most of Owens’s tenure, leading up to his comeback match at ‘Mania. If Owens were to be positioned back on the same brand as Bryan, it could feel both fresh to engage with this singles program, while also being logical enough given the history between these two men.
Best of all, given the talents involved, the matches and promos involved would be most likely prove superb.