At the Festival of Friendship, Jericho presented Owens with a painting. It was a replica of the “Creation of Man” painting, only with Jericho and Owens playing the roles of God and man. In the painting Owens and Jericho are reaching out their index fingers towards one another.
At WrestleMania, Owens used his index finger to reach the bottom rope while trapped in the Walls of Jericho. Owens then went on to win the match. At Payback, Owens again just used his index finger to grab the bottom rope to get out of a submission. Jericho then smashed Owens’ finger in the steps and locked Owens back in a submission. This time with his index finger injured, Owens had to tap as he could not reach out and grab the rope.
Owens’ index finger is an analogy for their “friendship”. He had used the finger/Jericho’s friendship to win matches. So if Jericho wanted to win he had to break the finger/friendship, which is what he did. Pretty creative storytelling.
– Adam Cole is officially a free agent after his Ring of Honor contract expired Sunday night, according to PWInsider. Cole is a former 2-time ROH World Champion and wrestled for the company since 2009. He’s now free to negotiate with other companies, including WWE/NXT and Impact Wrestling.
– WWE Hall of Famer Kevin Nash provided the following update on longtime friend Sean Waltman, who missed a scheduled appearance over the weekend had people concerned about his whereabouts. Nash says Waltman is “great” and there’s nothing to worry about.
@TheRealXPac is great. Nothing to worry about. Love you Sean my brother.
– Kevin Owens noted on Twitter that he just got added to tonight’s SmackDown live event from Stockton, California and plans to take out his aggression on whoever stands in his way. Owens dropped the United States Championship to Chris Jericho at Payback and says things are not going to end well for whoever his opponents are tonight and tomorrow in Fresno.
– Fans in attendance at Sunday’s WWE Payback pay-per-view voiced their displeasure with the pre-recorded portion of the House of Horrors match. Twitter user @CrimsonDevies posted this video of the crowd chanting “boring” while the House of Horrors match played on the big screen.
We’ve got some more newsworthy quotes from Jim Cornette’s recent appearance on The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast. Below, can you can read what Cornette said about where he stands on Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Kenny Omega and Joey Ryan.
The perception that he does not like Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn:
“Once again everyone said that Cornette must be hanging himself in his closet and slitting his wrist because they are so successful. Which is ridiculous. Kevin Steen (Owens) and El Generico (Sami Zayn) were both pains in the asses to deal with. It was the 80/20 principle where you spend 80% of your time dealing with 20% of your talent’s problems. Part of it is that they are French Canadian and I’m sorry but French Canadians in wrestling have always been pains in the ass except for Pat Patterson.
But part of it was we are paying them to play professional athletes on television so Steen, we’d like you to lose some weight, f*cking buy some new clothes and f*cking trim your beard up and look a little neater. El Generico a television company has just bought the promotion you work for so we’d like you to be able to do interviews instead of being a mute and we’d like you to take the God damn mask off ( I didn’t even broach that with him) because OH MY GOD it would have been like I sodomized his f*cking mother if I would have said take the mask off. But you’ve got a French Canadian muslin with red hair trying to play a Luchador and nobody understood it.”
“When people that are paying you ask you to do and get a long a little better and son of a gun we just found out that Ring of Honor wasn’t paying them enough money because when somebody comes along and pays them more money they do what we asked them to do and as a result they are tremendously successful. I never said that they were f*cking horrible wrestlers. We made Steen the World Champion for a f*cking year, we tried to sign Generico to another contract but that is when he had the WWE sniffing around him so he wouldn’t do it so we didn’t use him. Everybody said ‘oh God damn’ Cornette has run these guys off…well no. I just wanted them to be more accessible to a wider audience. Now when they have done everything I had asked them to do they are now superstars, imagine that? Wouldn’t you know who won the pony.”
“I never said that (once again) they were bad wrestlers and they couldn’t get over. I said they ain’t getting over unless they do certain things and tweak what they’ve already got. They’ve done that and they have been successful. They’ve never embarrassed the business by beating up grade school children or having matches with blow up dolls. Kenny Omega (I’ve said this about him) I don’t care if he discovers the cure for cancer in his spare time, brings Lou Thesz back from the grave and stretches him in a shoot..he is still a piece of sh*t that should never be in the business because he had matches with nine year old girls and blow up dolls. I don’t care how good he is. I don’t have any time for him, don’t want to look at him, don’t want to hear about him and if I had complete control over pro wrestling I would have Dan Severn go and beat the f*ck out of him and leave him laying in a f*cking ditch.
Why he still has such strong feelings about the wrestling business and how comedy spots hurt the industry:
“He (Omega) embarrassed his profession and he embarrassed everybody that has ever been in it. Steen and Generico never did that. They just had misguided ideas of the facets of their gimmicks and their personalities. They didn’t do phony spots with their d*ck like that f*cking idiot Joey Ryan. He just blatantly does phony bullsh*t because he is an underneath guy that doesn’t have the talent to compete with the major main event level wrestlers so he does this sh*t to get attention.
Everybody says that Cornette says all that stuff because he wants people to listen to his podcast and how can he take wrestling that seriously. Well I do! I’ve made several million dollars off of wrestling and not only because it has been my profession but it has been my favorite thing in life as a hobby since I was nine years old. So yeah I do take it that seriously and Joey Ryan is an embarrassment to it and so is Kenny Omega. At least Omega has a job on top and Joey Ryan is still working ‘outlaw’ shows in front of 400 people shaking his d*ck because that is all he can do.”
WWE.com announced earlier today that Kevin Owens plans on issuing a “Face of America Open Challenge” tonight on Smackdown. This despite Owens already having a scheduled title defence at Payback versus Chris Jericho and another pending against AJ Styles.
John Cena popularized such open challenges during his run with the US championship in 2015.
US Championship Contenders
Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, and even Shinsuke Nakamura could all find themselves competing for this title later in the year. Mojo Rawley is someone WWE has pushed up the card as of late as well. Additionally, Rusev will be returning from injury later in the year and has a long history with the belt.
– Earlier this week, the WWE Network added several episodes of Prime Time Wrestling hosted by Bobby “the Brain” Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon. The episodes were taped in 1987 from Baltimore, MD. According to WWE Network News, expect to see more episodes of Prime Time Wrestling from 1987 and 1988 added soon.
– WWE released the following trailer for the “Fight Owens Fight” DVD and Blu-ray, due out July 3rd. You can pre-order now at Amazon.com.
– John Cena tweeted the following to hype “The Wall,” which hits theaters on May 12 and co-stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Cena won “Action Star of the Year” for at CinemaCon a few weeks ago for the performance. ICM Partners, who reps Cena, took out a full-page advertisement in Variety last week to congratulate Cena on the award.
Kevin Owens kicked off Smackdown and came down to the ring in a suit. Owens also had shaved his beard off. The crowd at the TD Garden erupted as he made his way to the ring. Owens grabbed a microphone and stated that Smackdown was now the “Kevin Owens show”. Owens claimed that Smackdown Live just got a huge upgrade because he was here now.
Owens played up the fact that Canada was better than the United States. Owens also insulted the Boston crowd by stating that the Montreal Canadiens beat the Boston Bruins all the time. Owens challenged someone to come out to the ring for a fight. Owens said that he wants to become the new face of America. Baron Corbin interrupted and claimed that Owens cannot beat him up. Corbin claimed that he beat up Dean Ambrose so bad last week that he went and hid on Raw.
Corbin said that technically he is owed a Championship match and challenged Owens to a match. Sami Zayn then came down to the ring and Kevin Owens lost it in the ring. Zayn announced that he was finally on Smackdown Live and the crowd erupted. AJ Styles came down to the ring and said that this was not the Kevin Owens show, it is Smackdown Live.
Daniel Bryan came down to the entrance ramp and revealed that whomever wins the United States Championship at Payback between Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens will officially join the Smackdown Live roster. Daniel Bryan made a Triple Threat Match, Baron Corbin vs Sami Zayn vs AJ Styles. The winner of that match will face the winner of the United States Championship match at WWE Payback.
Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens battled in the main event of Friday night’s WWE live event from Montreal. Zayn defeated his longtime rival in what was described as a great match with a red hot crowd.
After the match, Zayn cut a promo talking about his history with Owens. Zayn told Owens he respects him, which earned Owens a standing ovation. Zayn said he doesn’t know what he’ll be doing at WrestleMania, but this match was his WrestleMania.
Better later than never. The bromance between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho is deader than dead, but WWE is offering a chance to commemorate one of the best storylines of the past year. WWEShop has released a poster of the “Creation of Kevin” painting Jericho unveiled at the Festival of Friendship.
As we head into WrestleMania, there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho match. Some of the reasons Owens has given for why he turned on Jericho still don’t add up completely.
Owens said he turned on Jericho because of Jericho accepting the match with Goldberg on Kevin’s behalf. That ignores the secret conversation Owens had with Triple H earlier on the night he turned on Jericho. What did Triple H tell Owens? It’ll be interesting to see if Triple H’s involvement in this storyline is ever mentioned again, or if we are just expected to forget about that part.
Kevin Owen’s Universal Championship reign (so far the longest in history) came to an end last night at Fastlane.
Kevin Owens Wins the Universal Championship
After Finn Balor was forced to vacate the title, it was determined the new champion would be crowned via a 4-way elimination match on Raw. Owens qualified for the 4-way match by defeating Neville in a singles match the week before. The 4-way was held on the August 29th 2016 episode of Raw.
In addition to the match crowning Owens as champion, it also kick started the Triple H vs. Seth Rollins feud, when Hunter gave Rollins a pedigree and literally handed the belt to Owens.
Not counting house show results, Owens successfully defended the Universal Championship six times before dropping the belt to Goldberg last night.
Feud with Seth Rollins
With Triple H nowhere to be found for months after helping Owens win the title initially, Owens entered a months long feud with Seth Rollins. While Owens wasn’t able to rely on the help of Triple H, he got plenty from his “best friend” Chris Jericho during this program.
Jericho helped Owens successfully defend the title against Rollins 3 times, first at Clash of Champions, then inside Hell in a Cell, and then again on the Raw after Survivor Series in Toronto. With Rollins out of the title picture, Owens then moved on to a program with Roman Reigns.
Feud with Roman Reigns
Owens’ feud with Roman started while he was teasing a breakup of his friendship with Chris Jericho. It seemed like Jericho was going to turn on Owens and cost him the title. That kind of happened at “Roadblock: End of the Line” when Jericho gave Owens the codebreaker during the Owens vs Reigns title match, causing the DQ. Turns out this was all a rouse and Jericho was just saving the title for his buddy.
Reigns then got another shot at the Rumble, this time with Jericho suspended in a shark cage above the ring. Strowman then saved the title for Owens however, when he interfered and gave Roman a power slam through a table.
Then Owens was scheduled for a title defence against Strowman on Raw, but Roman interfered causing the DQ and inadvertently saving the belt for Owens.
Loss to Goldberg
We still don’t know what Triple H said to Kevin Owens to cause him to turn on Jericho. Whatever it was it didn’t help him out much. Not only was Jericho not there to help Owens, but he actually caused the distraction which allowed Goldberg to get the squash victory in mere seconds.
Total Reign: August 29th 2016 to March 5th 2017 Days as Champion: 188 Title Defences (no including house shows): 6
RAW Universal Champion Kevin Owens will be profiled in a new WWE DVD, due out in July. Here is WWE’s first look at, “Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story.”
Kevin Owens, real name Kevin Steen, has an interesting history in the pro wrestling business. He had been a pro for 14 years before signing with the WWE. While wrestling under his real name he and El Generico (Sami Zayn) had a longstanding feud which spanned multiple promotions.
Steen was well received in ROH, PWG and various other indies, but wouldn’t get a shot at the WWE until Triple H began scouting talent for NXT in 2014
– We reported earlier this week that Chris Jericho resurfaced at a WWE live event from Germany. It was Jericho’s first public appearance since Owens betrayed him at the Festival of Friendship. Jericho came out on crutches wearing a neck brace and once again felt the wrath of WWE’s Universal Champion. WWE posted this footage of the latest attack:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ8qEV3At68/
– Bill Goldberg has taken notice of NXT Women’s Champion Asuka’s impressive winning streak.
Congratulations @WWEAsuka on your 149th win in a row! #whosnext ????????
Chris Jericho returned at Wednesday’s WWE live event from Dusseldorf, Germany, his first public appearance since Kevin Owens betrayed him during last week’s Festival of Friendship.
Jericho came to the ring on crutches and wearing a neck brace. He cut a promo vowing revenge on his former best friend. Jericho was interrupted by Owens, who proceeded to beat Jericho down again.
Roman Reigns came out for the save, setting up the show’s main event. In a No Holds Barred match, Kevin Owens defeated Roman Reigns to retain the RAW Universal Championship.
Opening Segment: Kevin Owens Cuts A Promo On Goldberg
Kevin Owens opened up Raw alone. There was no Chris Jericho by his side, nobody to hide behind. Instead, he sat in a chair and stated his strategy for defeating Goldberg at Fastlane. Owens vowed to outlast Goldberg. He said it is common knowledge that the longer a Goldberg match goes, the more likely it is that Goldberg will falter. Owens was going to address his attack on Chris Jericho last week but opted to drop the microphone and leave the ring. Two weeks before WWE Fastlane, the WWE wants you to take Kevin Owens seriously. He has spent months relying on others to help him win matches. If he drops the title to Goldberg, he was officially a paper champion. If he retains due to outside interference, he is the same old Kevin Owens. If he defeats Goldberg clean, then all of Goldberg’s mystique is gone heading into his match against Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania.
Enzo & Cass Become #1 Contenders For The Raw Tag Team Championships
After months of meaningless feuds, Enzo and Cass have finally been thrust into the Raw Tag Team Championship picture. They defeated Sheamus & Cesaro and will now face Gallows & Anderson for the titles at WWE Fastlane. Sheamus & Cesaro won the Raw Team Championships by defeating the New Day. The New Day were the longest reigning Tag Team Champions in WWE history. Sheamus & Cesaro then did nothing with the titles and promptly dropped them to Gallows & Anderson on the Royal Rumble Kickoff Show. After the match, Sheamus leveled Enzo with a Brogue Kick outside the ring. Cesaro congratulated Sheamus on laying out Enzo. Are Sheamus & Cesaro now heels? I guess those backstage segments with Bayley the last couple of weeks were pointless.
Roman Reigns Beatdown Both Gallows & Anderson
For the second week in a row, Roman Reigns was able to beat the hell out of the Raw Tag Team Champions. There has really been no explanation as to why Gallows & Anderson insist on fighting Roman Reigns. These Handicap matches have done nothing but make Gallows & Anderson look weak. Roman Reigns looks powerful, but he always has. The problem is that he has never been able to connect with the WWE Universe the way that the WWE apparently wants him to. Instead of feeding a random team like the Shining Stars to Reigns, the WWE has instead made the Raw Tag Team Champions look even weaker than they already did before this “feud” with Roman Reigns.
Looks like I picked a bad night to stop sniffin glue…
After dropping the Raw Tag Team Championships, the New Day have been in random feuds with Titus O’Neil and now Rusev & Jinder Mahal. The New Day were named the hosts of Wrestlemania 33, presumably because the WWE has nothing for them to do. The New Day are now protecting their blueprints to their ice cream that is coming out this year. Why every Superstar they face is obsessed with these blueprints I have no idea. Since losing the United States Championship, Rusev has been relegated to a comedy act. Rusev was once feared as this dominant force, now he is stuck in segments like the one we saw last night.
The Women’s Division On Raw Is The Same Thing Over And Over Again
Charlotte has never lost a match on a WWE PPV, yet is routinely beaten on Monday Night Raw. Last night, she tapped out to the Bank Statement via Sasha Banks. Last week, Charlotte lost her Women’s Championship to Bayley. It was announced that Charlotte will get her rematch for the Raw Women’s Championship at WWE Fastlane. Instead of slowly building Bayley up, she was given the Raw Women’s Championship on a random episode of Raw. Stephanie McMahon wanted Bayley to relinquish the title due to Sasha Banks interfering in her match with Charlotte last week. If Bayley drops the title to Charlotte at Fastlane, that will make Charlotte a 5x Raw Women’s Champion in under a year.
I find it hard to believe that Charlottes undefeated PPV streak would end at Fastlane. It would make much more sense for that moment to happen at Wrestlemania. It also would have made more sense for Bayley to overcome Charlotte and The Authority and finally get her moment at Wrestlemania. Instead, we’ve already seen that moment of her winning the Raw Women’s Championship. The other option is for Bayley to retain and face either Sasha Banks or Nia Jax at Wrestlemania. The problem with that is that Nia Jax receives virtually no reaction from the WWE Universe. Sasha Banks has zero momentum right now and Wrestlemania is five weeks away. It just seems like the better story would have been to hold Bayley down until Wrestlemania. Charlotte could have screwed Bayley out of winning the Raw Women’s Championship until the biggest show of the year.
Roman Reigns Is In No Man’s Land
Roman Reigns has gotten his ass kicked two weeks in a row by Braun Strowman. Reigns will face Strowman at WWE Fastlane. If he defeats Strowman at Fastlane, people will be pissed off. If Reigns loses, what does he do at Wrestlemania? As of now, Roman Reigns is not a part of a major match at Wrestlemania. I’m not sure if the WWE thought that placing Reigns in Handicap matches would cause the audience to be more receptive to him. Whatever they were going for, it hasn’t worked at all.
Michael Cole made it a point to say that Roman Reigns sent a message after he beatdown Gallows & Anderson. I have zero clue what that message is supposed to be. Is Reigns going to face Strowman at Fastlane and then again at Wrestlemania? Reigns is a no win situation right now. If he gets thrust into the Universal Championship picture before Wrestlemania, people will get pissed off. If he is not a part of a major match at Wrestlemana, that feels like a waste. Say what you want about Roman Reigns, at the very least he generates a reaction from the WWE Universe. Right now, he seems to be in a position where the WWE Universe does not want him to succeed, yet the WWE still wants him to be a top guy.
The social media trash talk between Kevin Owens and Bill Godlberg is heating up ahead of their upcoming showdown at WWE Fastlane. Owens threw shade in Goldberg’s direction last week when he pointed out WWE’s production crew had been digitally darkening Goldberg’s goatee.
Goldberg was not in attendance for Monday’s RAW from Las Vegas, but he took notice of Chris Jericho bringing out Gillberg during the Festival of Friendship.
Did Triple H Encourage Kevin Owens to Turn on Chris Jericho?
In a backstage segment leading up to the “Festival of Friendship” Triple H asked to speak with Owens in private, as in without Chris Jericho present. A second quick shot of Owens and HHH was shown later in the show, though no audio was present. It seems likely that Triple H relayed the message to Owens that he should turn on Jericho.
Jericho, who was taken away in an ambulance last night, has been silent since. Considering Jericho had promised to help Owens retain his Universal Championship at Fastlane, one now has to wonder if Triple H (or Samoa Joe) will now play a role in the match.
Naturally this means an Owens vs. Jericho match at WrestleMania is upcoming. If Owens retains (with the help of HHH) at Fastlane, then the Universal title will be on the line in that match. If Goldberg defeats Owens however (most likely with Jericho fending off Triple H) then Goldberg vs. Lesnar would have the Universal Championship on the line. Rumours are out there regarding who is most likely to come away the winner, but such rumours are often proved false.
– WWE 205 Live cruiserweight Akira Tozawa debuted on RAW last night in Portland. He defeated Drew Gulak, as seen in the video above. WWE also aired this video package with Cesaro talking about how good Tozawa is in the ring:
– To celebrate their friendship and show the world the strength of their bond, WWE US Champion Chris Jericho and WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens will be hosting a “Festival of Friendship” on next week’s RAW from Las Vegas.
WWE has also announced that Charlotte will defend the RAW Women’s Championship against Bayley on next week’s show in Vegas.
Kevin Owens knocked the WWE Fastlane graphic last night on Twitter. He has a match with Goldberg with the Universal Championship at the event, but Owens noticed something a little off with the picture of Goldberg and had no problem pointing it out on social media.
WWE has announced that Brock Lesnar vs. Kevin Owens will take place at the March 12th SmackDown live event from Madison Square Garden in New York City. Here’s the full card:
– WWE Champion John Cena vs. Bray Wyatt
– Universal Champion Kevin Owens vs. Brock Lesnar
– Dean Ambrose vs. Baron Corbin vs. The Miz in a triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship.
– Randy Orton vs. Luke Harper
– American Alpha vs. The Usos for the SmackDown tag team titles
– Dolph Ziggler vs. Apollo Crews
– Nikki Bella, Becky Lynch, Naomi and Tamina vs. Alexa Bliss, Mickie James, Natalya and Carmella (with James Ellsworth)
– Rhyno, Heath Slater and Kalisto vs. Breezango & Curt Hawkins
– Former WWE writer Brian Maxwell Mann tweeted the following about WWE’s creative direction heading into WrestleMania. There’s been some buzz going around that John Cena’s WrestleMania opponent has been decided and fans won’t be too excited about the matchup. Mann has apparently learned who Cena will be facing and agrees it’s not a good match on paper.
In reponse to a rumor of Goldberg capturing the Universal Championship from Kevin Owens and defending it against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania, Mann thinks the title stipulation does nothing to enhance the match.
Sunday’s WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view saw Kevin Owens retain the Universal Championship against Roman Reigns in a very physical no disqualification match. With Chris Jericho suspended high above the ring in a shark cage, Braun Strowman stormed the ring, laid waste to Reigns and handed another victory to KO. Following Owens’ successful defense, Dave Meltzer of f4wonline.com has revealed WWE’s plans for the Universal Championship through WrestleMania 33.
As of this writing, the plan is for Kevin Owens to defend the Universal Championship against Bill Goldberg at Fastlane, which takes place on Sunday, March 5th. The big scoop is that the Universal Championship will not be defended at RAW live events following Fastlane, a strong indication that Goldberg will be the man to end KO’s title reign.
The scenario is already being compared to The Rock and Brock Lesnar’s most recent WWE title runs, with part-time stars being used to elevate the title without having to work live events.
Goldberg as Universal Champion also means the big showdown with Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania will be a title match. Kevin Owens vs. Chris Jericho has been long rumored for Mania, so perhaps Jericho will have a hand in Owens losing his prized possession at Fastlane.
Discussion: What do you think of the possibility Goldberg as Universal Champion?
The Undertaker interrupted the post-RAW celebration by Kevin Owens and new WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho after tonight’s RAW in New Orleans went off the air.
Jericho and Owens worked the mic before Jericho threatened The Deadman and the segment ended with chokeslams for each man.
– The first official trailer for The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania! has been released and features Roman Reigns, Sheamus, Alicia Fox and others. The movie releases via Digital HD on 2/28 and on DVD/VOD on 3/14. Below is the trailer from IGN:
– Below is backstage RAW Fallout video with new WWE United States Champion Chris Jericho celebrating with Kevin Owens after last night’s RAW. Jericho brags on he and Owens before they “clink” their championships to end the segment.
– Dave Bautista took to Twitter this week and responded to the comments made by legendary actress Meryl Streep at the Golden Globes on Sunday. While voicing her opposition to Donald Trump, Streep commented: “So Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick them all out you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”
The comments brought heat from MMA fans, fighters and promoters. Batista, who tried his hand at the sport a few years back, wrote the following:
Chris Jericho is the new WWE United States Champion after he and Kevin Owens defeated Roman Reigns in a handicap match on Monday’s RAW from New Orleans.
This marks Jericho’s first run with the US Championship. He is also the 7th WWE Superstar to become a “Grand Slam Champion” – having held the US Championship, the Intercontinental Championship, the WWE Championship and a Tag Team Championship.
Other Superstars to achieve this feat includeEddie Guerrero, Edge, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, The Miz and Big Show.
On WWE’s website, they currently have a poll up that asks which Superstar has been the better champion for their respective brand between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles. As of now, AJ Styles has 91% of the votes from the WWE Universe. Styles and Owens are both heel champions, yet Styles has won most of his matches on his own. Kevin Owens has relied on the assistance of Chris Jericho to retain his Universal Championship. Owens may wind up adding another championship around his waist tonight on Monday Night Raw. Roman Reigns will be defending the United States Championship against Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho later tonight.
Dave Meltzer stated on Wrestling Observer Radio that Kenny Omega’s contract with NJPW ends on January 31st this year. The Royal Rumble is taking place on January 29th and Meltzer also claims that there are rumors that Omega has already re-signed with NJPW. Meltzer noted that Omega re-signing with NJPW is unconfirmed at this point.
AJ Styles currently sits at the top of the list on ESPN’s WWE power rankings. Charlotte Flair comes in at number two and Kevin Owens is number three. You can check out the rest of ESPN’s power rankings by clicking here.
Kevin Owens was on Off The Top Rope on ESPN recently and was a part of the “One Word” segment. Owens was asked by Jonathan Coachman to give one word about Goldberg and Owens chose “enemy”. Owens’ reasoning was that he grew up a die-hard WWE fan and that Goldberg was the biggest name in WCW at the time. Owens also attributed the word “uselss” to internet trolls. You can check out the entire segment by clicking here.
Mick Foley posted his thoughts on the match between Kenny Omega and Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 11. Foley described the match as one of the greatest he has ever seen and encouraged people to make an effort to watch it.
TNA has posted a new video of Bobby Lashley challenging Ethan Carter III to a Last Man Standing match. That match will happen on this week’s Impact and the winner will go on to face Eddie Edwards for the TNA World Heavyweight Championship.