Kevin Owens was a guest on the most recent episode of Corey Graves’ new podcast “WWE After the Bell.” During the interview, Owens detailed how he began using the stunner as a finish as well as Stone Cold Steve Austin’s reaction when he asked him if he could begin using the move.
“I had a conversation with (Steve Austin) years ago actually,” Owens said when Graves asked him if he spoke to Austin regarding using the move. “I want to say it was in 2016. This is the thing, people were doing the stunner – you know, you’d have the odd guy do the stunner in a random match as just something they were doing and that was it, nobody was using it as a trademark but I had seen guys use a stunner here and there but not to the extent that I felt it should be used.”
Owens continued to talk about how when he asked Austin about it, Austin was happy because Owens wanted to use the move as his finisher.
“I went to Steve and I asked him if I could use it and he was very happy that I asked him, you know me giving him the respect of it, but more than anything he was happy that somebody asked him because he’s like ‘you want to use it as your finisher?’ I’m like ‘yes.’ He’s like ‘God, it’s about time, I can’t believe nobody’s tried this yet.'”
Owens would continue to say it took a while for him to be allowed to use the move. He also mentioned sneaking it into a match with Roman Reigns before receiving permission from management to use the move. This part of the conversation between Owens and Graves can be viewed in the player below:
