WWE News: ESPN's Amin Elhassan apologizes for tweet about Kevin Owens' son
Last Monday night on RAW, Kevin Owens fought Seth Rollins, Big Cass, and Roman Reigns in a fatal-4-way matchup for the WWE Universal Championship belt that was vacated by Finn Balor following his shoulder injury during his SummerSlam match against Rollins. Finn won the match but on the next day on RAW, had to give it up since he has to stay away from the ring till the medical team gives him a clearance to fight again.
Last week, however, the events unfolded in a rather strange way as Triple H showed up in his business attire and proceeded to pedigree Roman Reigns outside the ring, after which, he threw both Rollins and Reigns in the ring followed by Rollins pinning and eliminating Reigns. Triple H got into the ring to face Owens and it looked like he would help Rollins win the title but in a quick turn of events, ended up performing a pedigree on Rollins and letting Owens pin him before handing Owens the title himself.
Seconds after Owens became the second Superstar to hold the WWE Universal Championship, his wife, Karina Steen posted an Instagram video of their 8-year-old son Owen, reacting to his father’s big win. The video shows the boy overcome with emotion and at a loss for words, clearly very proud of his dad being recognized formally as one of the top wrestlers in the world today.
The video saw lots of comments and good wishes as it touched the hearts of the fans worldwide, but one comment on a twitter re-post stood out. ESPN personality and NBA analyst Amin Elhassan commented that the boy’s reaction to his father’s victory was scripted and worded it in a way that seemed like he had verified information and was reporting on it.
This enraged many KO fans as well as WWE personalities notably former WWE employee Jonathan “Coach” Coachman since this was a mean-spirited jab at the champion’s family. He was of the opinion that a recognized sports journalist should have known better than to troll an athlete’s family member just to make a silly joke.
Since then, Amin has issued an official apology saying: "I tweeted a joke about wrestling earlier this week and it was in poor taste. I sincerely apologize to Kevin Owens and his family."
I tweeted a joke about wrestling earlier this week and it was in poor taste. I sincerely apologize to kevin owens and his family.
— Amin Elhassan (@AminESPN) September 2, 2016
Elhassan has created the #HateHard King persona for himself on social media as a sort of gimmick to promote his work, but this time, it was taken too far. After the apology, Kevin Owens simply tweeted “I win” but no one knows for sure if he was referring to the apology tweet or his title win.