In a WrestleMania season shocker, a new report indicates that WWE is attempting to get “Stone Cold” Steve Austin to return for a match at this year’s WrestleMania in Arlington, Texas.

A match for Austin at WrestleMania would be his first in nearly 20 years. His last match was against The Rock at WrestleMania XIX in Seattle back in 2003. Additionally, this year’s WrestleMania takes place in Austin’s home state of Texas, perhaps presenting an enticing opportunity for the WWE Hall of Famer.

According to the report from Fightful Select, WWE has made a “significant overture” for Austin to wrestle at WrestleMania 38. WWE has not commented officially on the manner, and the Fightful report indicates that WWE sources have responded in various ways to the report — everything from being “coy” to assuming the match will indeed happen.

Steve Austin vs. Kevin Owens Being Discussed for WrestleMania

Bryan Alvarez of F4WOnline followed up Fightful’s report by noting that an Austin vs. Kevin Owens match specifically has been discussed for the show. Of course, Owens has used the Stone Cold Stunner in recent years, which would make sense as an obvious tie-in.

• Jim Ross On Which AEW Star Is The Closest Thing To Stone Cold Steve Austin

Over the years, several stars have attempted to convince Austin to return for a one-off match, but nobody has gotten him even close to attempting a comeback. Austin is now 57 years old; he was just 38 when he wrestled for the last time back in 2003.

Interestingly, WWE was offering two-for-one tickets to WrestleMania earlier Monday as a Valentine’s Day special. In year’s past, a ticket special for WrestleMania was almost unheard of due to the popularity of the show. However, with WWE running two nights at one of the biggest stadiums in the country, they have a lot of tickets to move this year. No doubt an Austin return would do a lot for ticket sales.

Check out the Top Rope Nation wrestling podcast for your weekly dose of pro wrestling talk featuring interviews, analysis and exclusive news: Apple – Spotify – YouTube.

Sami Zayn has signed a new multi-year deal with WWE, per Fightful and Pat Laprade of TVA Sports.

The news comes just weeks after Zayn’s longtime friend and rival Kevin Owens signed a new 3-year deal.

Zayn has been with WWE since 2013. He’s a former NXT Champion and a 2-time Intercontinental Champion.

WWE was not the only company looking to retains Zayn’s services. Per Fightful, Zayn also had interest from people in AEW and Ring of Honor, before ROH went on hiatus.

Owens also had interest from AEW, but decided to stick with WWE when all was said and done.

Sami Zayn will participate in the Men’s Royal Rumble match on January 29th.

He’s been involved in a program with Jackass star Johnny Knoxville, who will also be part of the Royal Rumble match. It remains to be seen if these two will ever work a singles match, or if their mini-feud will be limited to the Rumble.

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are not only best friends outside the wrestling ring but the two have helped elevate each other’s careers for years as both friends and foes inside the squared circle as well.

While the two wrestling geniuses have delivered many classics against each other, their biggest encounter has to be their WrestleMania 37 match.

Speaking to WWE Kids Magazine, Kevin Owens reflected on this fight. He claimed that it’s incredible to look back on:

“Not many people can say they’ve had a singles match at WrestleMania, especially these days as it’s getting more and more rare.

So, to do it with Sami after all the history we have, it’s incredible to look back on and I think people loved the match. I loved that match, for sure.”

• Kevin Owens On What He Sees Himself Doing After Retirement

Kevin Owens also discussed how he has never won the tag team championship in WWE despite being a part of the promotion for almost 8 years now.

The former Universal champion claimed that he would want to win the title with either Sami Zayn or Finn Balor because they could tell some great stories together.

WrestleMania 37 was a two-night event that took place in April 2021 from the Raymond James Stadium. Owens defeated Zayn during night 2 of the event.

Kevin Owens feels a sense of accomplishment in helping other people achieve their goals, and that’s why he sees himself becoming an agent once he has called it a career and retired from active competition.

The former Universal champion recently had an interview with Les anti-pods de la lutte. He talked about things such as possibly becoming a world champion again down the line and more.

Discussing his future goals, Owens said that he would like to help anyone who needs it, before claiming that he might consider doing it professionally once he has retired:

“I have a huge sense of accomplishment when I see other people working hard and who deserve to be recognized for their passion or their talent, to see it happening. I think it’s really cool.

So, I could see myself working as an agent one day, because I already have those feelings of accomplishment even if I’m still active.” said Kevin Owens, “That said, I don’t see myself hanging my boots any time soon, but just to know that it could be a possibility one day, it’s good to know and comforting.”

Though it doesn’t appear that KO will be calling it a career anytime soon. He has recently signed a new contract with WWE and reports suggest that he is being paid handsomely to stay with the promotion.

Kevin Owens is not only receiving a lot of money but he has also received praise from a number of people including Ric Flair. You can check out Flair’s comments here.

H/t to WrestlingInc for the transcribed quotes

WWE has been raking in record profits over the last couple of years, but even with all of that cash flow, the company has released over 100 performers from their contracts since the pandemic began in early 2020.

The term “budget cuts” was used internally as the rationale for those cuts, despite the company reporting record financial numbers in recent months. For talent worried about their jobs moving forward, they won’t have a lot of say in the matter unless they have a “no-cut clause.” The vast majority of WWE talent do not have these clauses written into their contracts; only a select few at the top of the card have a no-cut clause.

According to a report from Fightful Select, Vince McMahon has been steadfast in his opposition to no-cut clauses being offered to talents who re-sign with the company. It was revealed last week that Kevin Owens re-signed with WWE — a deal that is reportedly worth in the neighborhood of $2-3 million per year. His new deal does not include a no-cut clause.

The Fightful report notes that some within WWE (“people of influence” is the term given) have been open to the idea of including no-cut clauses, but McMahon has ruled it out. Talent have essentially been told that the idea is a non-starter at this point.

Which Talent Will Sign WWE Contracts, Who Will Leave

There are currently rumors that Sami Zayn has re-signed with WWE, though the specifics of his deal have not been made public and this is only a rumor at this point (as reported in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter). One would assume that since Owens was unable to get a no-cut clause, the same would apply for Zayn.

Johnny Gargano and Kyle O’Reilly are both now free agents after their deals with WWE expired. The pair would be free to sign or appear for AEW or any other promotion as soon as they wanted. O’Reilly is expected to be the first to possibly jump ship with Gargano and his wife, Candice LeRae, expecting their first child soon.

Check out the Top Rope Nation wrestling podcast for your weekly dose of pro wrestling talk featuring interviews, analysis and exclusive news: Apple – Spotify – YouTube.

AEW boss Tony Khan says he would’ve had interest in Kevin Owens had he not re-signed with WWE.

Owens had a decision to make regarding his in-ring career. His WWE contract was running out and he had the choice of staying with the company or testing free agency. Ultimately, he signed a new deal with WWE which is said to last for three years.

Tony Khan Praises Kevin Owens

Speaking to Shakiel Mahjouri of CBS Sports, Tony Khan said that Kevin Owens is a great talent and that he would’ve looked into possibly signing him had he been available.

“I would have been interested in that. He’s a great wrestler. I think he ended up signing for what I believe is probably a lot of money. I think that’s great and good for him. We have a lot of people spotlighted here and he’s great. Any company he goes to he’ll be a great wrestler for them.”

Owens’ new deal with WWE is said to be quite lucrative. Dave Meltzer of Wrestling Observer Radio reported that Owens’ contract is in the $2-3 million range per year.

The report also noted that the feeling is AEW wouldn’t have matched such an offer. WWE has been releasing plenty of talent as of late so it’s clear that the company wanted KO to stick around and didn’t hesitate to throw out a hefty offer.

KO will be featured in a WWE Title match at the Day 1 PPV. He’ll challenge WWE Champion Big E. KO won’t be the only challenger as this will be a fatal four-way match. Bobby Lashley and Seth Rollins will also be competing for the gold.

Kevin Owen says WWE has a good reason for not sending any tribute videos to ROH Final Battle. According to Owens, they never asked.

 Les Anti-Pods de la Lutte’s Patric Laprade and Kevin Raphael spoke with Owens about ROH. When asked why no one from WWE did promos for ROH Final Battle, he replied that ROH didn’t ask WWE. Unlike WWE talent, former ROH wrestlers in All Elite Wrestling and Impact Wrestling sent in videos thanking the promotion during ROH Final Battle.

Laprade transcribed the interview from French to English. He shared the transcription with SEScoops.

“The answer is quite simple: Ring of Honor didn’t ask any wrestlers from WWE to do that, nor contacted anyone at WWE. I knew it was going to be their last show, but I didn’t think to send a video so they could play it at the show. I’ve watched it. I was at a WWE show, and I was watching it on my phone, so it was not something I simply ignored. I’ve read some people on the Internet saying that probably WWE didn’t let us do it, but that’s incorrect. It’s just ROH who didn’t ask us, and I bet that if they had, we could have done it, but that wasn’t the case,” said Owens.

End of an Era for ROH

ROH Final Battle took place on December 11. The event marked the end of the current format of the wrestling promotion, as they are looking not to sign talent exclusively. ROH will book independent wrestlers to appear for them per event. However, it is unclear how they will book talent for events or ROH TV episodes. ROH also plans not to do any shows until April 2022.

Kevin Owens on How ROH Impacted his Career

After explaining why he didn’t send a tribute video to ROH, he shared why the promotion helped his career. While he appreciates his time in ROH, he’s unsure if he needed ROH to get into WWE. He also credits his time in Pro Wrestling Guerilla for growing his popularity.

“It’s funny cause I often ask myself that same question. Of course, it gave me a very important platform in the United States. But at the end of the day, William Regal saw me at a PWG show. And even before I started full-time with ROH in 2007, I had a good name on the indies because of PWG. So sometimes I wonder if things would have not become what they became with ROH if I would have made it to WWE anyway. Maybe, maybe not, I don’t know,” said Owens. He also admits that he once thought he’d stay with ROH for his entire career.

While he’s unsure if ROH helped his popularity, he does credit ROH for helping change his priorities. “…However, with time, my priorities changed a little, my family’s priorities changed a little, and that’s when WWE became my goal again. So ROH was a big influence and a huge part of my career, but I often wonder if ROH would have not been part of my career if I would have made it to WWE anyway. A huge part of me thinks so. That said, I have plenty of good and fun memories with ROH, and I’m very happy to have been apart of ROH for all those years,” said Owens.

ROH is planning not to do any shows until April 2022. For ROH fans, the hope is that the promotion will have a successful fresh start.

Kevin Owens says he feels no connection to NXT 2.0, despite being a former NXT Champion and one of the most successful Superstars to pass through developmental.

The 37-year-old grappler from Quebec recently appeared on les Anti-Pods de la Lutte to discuss his decision to re-sign with WWE and much more.

During his discussion with Pat Laprade and Kevin Raphael, Owens said he barely recognizes the current incarnation of NXT.

Kevin Owens doesn’t recognize NXT 2.0

“Today’s NXT is very different than the NXT I was part of, to the point I believe it should have a totally different name,” he said. “And I don’t think it’s better or worse, but it’s just too different. So when I’m watching NXT, I don’t see the NXT I was part of. It’s not the same thing.”

Owens says NXT is a bit like Ring of Honor, in that it evolved so much that it’s barely recognizable anymore. “I don’t even consider that to be the same show,” he added. “I don’t really feel any attachment to NXT now.”

He still checks in on NXT 2.0 and sees talented people down there. However, the brand is so different that he’s not interested in returning there like Finn Balor did.

“I don’t think I fit in the new NXT as I was fitting in the NXT I was part of, with guys like Sami, Finn, Samoa Joe and Nakamura. When I watch NXT now, I don’t feel the same thing I felt when I was watching NXT two years ago.”

• Kevin Owens Discusses Re-Signing With WWE

Kevin Owens has shared his reasoning behind re-signing with the WWE.

News broke on Wednesday that Owens signed a new multi-yearcontract with the company. Owens spoke with Les Anti-Pods de la Lutte’s Patric Laprade and Kevin Raphael this week about his decision to remain with WWE.

The interview will be released next week, but Laprade posted quotes from the interview on his blog.

Owens shared that the decision was the best thing for his family. He also said that it’s a three-year deal and that originally the contract was going to expire on January 31, 2022.

“I’m just going to say that it still ends on January 31, but not 2022. I’m still going to be there for several years,” said Owens. He continued, “The decision was pretty easy because it really was the best thing for my family. When it comes to that, it’s always a pretty easy decision. WWE has been my home for seven years, so I have a sense of belonging.” 

“Basically, I spent most of my career there. When you look at all the wrestling companies, I’ve wrestled in, in WWE, that’s where I’ve been the longest, that’s where I need to be for the next few years. That’s how I felt, and that’s the decision I made.”

Kevin Owens Choosing WWE over AEW

Owens’s decision to re-sign with WWE surprised wrestling fans. He teased that he may leave the WWE in September, which caused speculation on joining All Elite Wrestling. On his blog, Laprade said, “If you read between the lines, when Owens says he did the best thing for his family, it could mean that it was the financial aspect of the deal that influenced the wrestler to stay with WWE.”

Numerous talent in WWE that they spoke to are happy that Owens re-signed, according to a reporty by Fightful. The report also shared that he still maintains a good relationship with people in AEW.

An AEW source said, “Anyone who knows Kevin knows his priorities are with his family first, so you have to be happy for him.”

At 37 years old, Owens will be under contract with WWE until January 31, 2024. He is currently in a feud with WWE champion Big E. He will also be in a fatal four-way for the title against Big E, Seth Rollins, and Bobby Lashley at Day 1 on January 1, 2022.

Kevin Owens has a lot to celebrate this holiday season.

News broke on Wednesday that Owens has signed a new multi-year contract with WWE. Details of Owens’ new deal have been revealed by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.

“He signed a 3-year deal with WWE,” said Meltzer. “I believe it was actually a couple of weeks ago when this happened.”

“It’s a very good money deal. I think the feeling is it’s more than he’d be able to get from AEW. $2-3 million in that range per year.”

Iron Clad?

While Owens is making good money per year, he did not get a no-cut clause in his contract that would protect him from being released somewhere down the line.

“He did not get a no-cut, he didn’t, that’s the other thing that I’ve heard,” Meltzer continued.

“In 3-years, he’ll be in the same position and probably fixing to make more money barring a career-ending injury.”

Owens has been with WWE since 2014. He is a 1x NXT Champion, 1x Universal Champion, 2x Intercontinental Champion, and 3x United States Champion.

Owens is scheduled to challenge for the WWE Championship at Day 1 on January 1st. He is booked in a fatal 4-way match against Bobby Lashley, Seth Rollins, and WWE Champion, Big E.

Kevin Owens has signed a new multi-year deal with WWE. The news was first reported by Fightful and confirmed by Pat Laprade.

Owens spoke with Laprade earlier this week. That interview, with comments on his decision to stick with WWE, drop Thursday.

WWE officials had been very interested in retaining his services. His contract was expiring soon and they made the former Universal champion an “excellent” offer to stay.

Retaining Owens is a big success for WWE after recently having lost people such as Bryan Danielson to AEW. The WWE sources that Fightful spoke to were said to be ‘over the moon’ about successfully re-signing Kevin Owens.

Many perceived AEW as the natural destination for the former Universal champion after his departure. AEW talents also believe that the management would have been interested in signing the former champion.

Though the belief is that AEW officials realistically wouldn’t have matched the financial offer made by WWE.

• Update: Kevin Owens Getting Millions To Stay With WWE

Kevin Owens In WWE

Kevin Owens has been with WWE since 2014. He has won over half a dozen championships in this time including a run with the Universal title.

His WWE contract originally expired later but he had restructured it to end in January 2022. This made the officials start the negotiation in the fall of 2021, something which is a ‘far cry’ from how things were done before.

The new deal is a multi-year agreement, though the exact length of it is unknown. So it’s hard to say for how long Kevin Owens is now locked in for.

KO is set to challenge for the WWE Championship in a Fatal Four Way match at Day 1. Now we will have to see how this turn of events affects his on-screen character.

A number of main roster stars were sent to NXT for extended runs when the brand started competing with AEW. It turns out, Kevin Owens could have been one of them if Vince McMahon hadn’t changed his mind.

The former Universal champion recently had an interview with TalkSport. He discussed things such as his WrestleMania 37 match against Sami Zayn and more.

Discussing his one-off return to the development brand in 2019, Owens revealed that there were plans for him to have an extended run but the boss nixed them:

“Before I did the War Games return, there were concrete plans for me to go back to NXT for an extended period before coming back to the main roster.

At the time Paul Heyman was in charge on Raw” said Kevin Owens, “and those were just plans we had and Vince [McMahon] had signed off on all of them and, eventually, he changed his mind and nothing happened.”

• Kevin Owens Reveals When He’ll Know It’s Time To Retire

The former NXT champion claimed that it wasn’t something he had floated about. It was a plan they had made before things went in a different direction.

Kevin Owens made a one-night return to NXT during the 2019 WarGames event. He was revealed as the mystery member of Team Ciampa in their fight against the Undisputed Era.

Kevin Owens has unveiled when he believes he’ll know it’s time to hang up his wrestling boots.

Owens is currently a member of the WWE Monday Night Raw roster. He was drafted from the SmackDown brand. On his first night back on the red team, Owens participated in a ladder match to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship. KO fell short in the match.

Following the loss, Kevin Owens took to his Twitter account to thank his fans. He also revealed when he’ll know it’s time to wrap up his in-ring career.

“I really don’t know what to say other than thank you all for your continued support and kind words. It really means a lot. The day I stop giving it my absolute all in that ring is the day I walk away. Not a second sooner. P.S. Rey Mysterio is the best.”

A lot has been made about the future of Owens. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported that KO’s deal with WWE is set to expire in Jan. 2022. Jon Alba followed up on this report saying that several people within WWE expressed their belief that Owens will not be signing a new contract with the company.

Much has been made about the WWE future of Kevin Owens.

It was recently reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select that Owens’ contract with WWE is running out sooner than expected. The current deal ends in January 2022.

Jon Alba has now revealed that some within WWE are of the belief that Owens will be making his exit from the promotion.

“In speaking with some WWE sources throughout the day, there is very much an internal belief Owens is gone at the end of his WWE deal. He has dropped multiple hints on social media in the last 24 hours that allude to him being AEW-bound.”

Alba added the following to his report in a Twitter post.

“Just for more context on this. I spoke with multiple people in #WWE today and this is just what they believe. Still plenty of time for things to change, as Sean Ross Sapp
noted, his deal is up in beginning of 2022. He’ll be an asset wherever he goes.”

Kevin Owens currently competes on the SmackDown brand. He has accomplished quite a bit in his WWE run. He’s a former WWE Universal Champion, a three-time United States Champion, a two-time Intercontinental Champion, and a former NXT Champion.

The same day that Kevin Owens got fans speculating about him potentially going to AEW, a report came out regarding the contract status of the former WWE Universal Champion. 

Owens stated in an interview in May of 2018 with TVA Sports that he’d signed a new 5-year contract that would carry him into 2023 with WWE. It turns out that’s changed and his deal is up sooner than most people expected.

Fightful Select reported today that his deal is actually now up in January 2022.  WWE restructured several contracts ahead of the pandemic and Owens’ deal was changed to expire in January 2022. 

It’s unclear if any additional terms of the deal or specifically why it was shortened. Unlike WWE being unaware of the contract status for Adam Cole and Pete Dunne, WWE is aware of Owens’ deal. 

Owens took to Twitter to tweet and later deleted the coordinates to Mt. Rushmore. He just so happened to be in the Mt. Rushmore stable with the Young Bucks and Cole prior to signing with WWE. Thus, rumors about him potentially going to AEW started. 

Owens also tweeted out this photo of himself with no caption after he was trending on social media: 

Kevin Owens won the WWE Universal Championship on the August 29, 2016 edition of Raw, marking five years since his run as champion. The title was introduced in July of that year with Finn Balor becoming the inaugural champion. He had to relinquish the title the next night after becoming the champion though.

A fatal four-way elimination match was set involving Kevin Owens, Big Cass, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins with Owens winning the title when Triple H interrupted the match and turned on Rollins. Owens would go on to keep the title on his waist for 6 months until he would lose to Goldberg at Fastlane 2017.

Kevin Owens Remembers His Universal Title Win

To mark the fifth anniversary of his Universal title reign, Owens posted a video on Twitter this Sunday where he talked about this career milestone and also thanked his fans.

“Hey guys, my wife reminded me today that five years ago something really cool happened. I saw on Twitter that a lot of people were also reminding me what happened. Man, the last five years have been a roller coaster… Lots of highs, lots of lows. The highs are great, but the lows, sometimes, they’re really hard to take for somebody who cares a lot, and who is very passionate about this, like I am.”

“But I’ve been so lucky because I’ve had a really great career. I’ve had my wife, my kids, and my parents who are all fantastic at helping me navigate through this. It’s not just them, I have really great friends, really great colleagues to go on this ride with. And I have everybody watching this right now,” Owens stated.

“I’ve been lucky to have a loyal following along me for that ride. And that’s you guys, today, reminding me of what happened five years ago when I won the Universal Title. So I figured this was a good time to say thank you to all of you. For being there for the highs, for being there for the lows, just for being there for the whole ride.”

Kevin Owens has been in involved in title match programs as recently as early this year, however, he hasn’t been successful in capturing any championship. It would be interesting to when Owens will be able to break this dry spell and capture gold once again.

Related: Kevin Owens: WWE Crew Helped Me During ThunderDome Era

Kevin Owens has detailed how he got a feel for what was working in the ThunderDome era.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses were forced to adapt. WWE was no exception as full arenas were out of the question. WWE’s answer was the ThunderDome.

Since there were no fans in attendance, it was difficult for the performers to determine what worked. Kevin Owens told ESPN The Game 102.5 that it was the WWE staffers who helped him know what was hitting it off inside the ThunderDome.

“For me, I was lucky in a way because it took me 15 years wrestling on the Independents before I got to WWE. For those 15 years, I ended wrestling in front of very small crowds sometimes, as little as 20 people. When we got into that setting and we were wrestling in front of 15 or 20 crew members and that was about it, it wasn’t that foreign to me.

“What I did, I started using the camera crew, the tech guys, everyone, the announcers…I started using them as my audience because all of those guys have been with WWE for so long. I know that if I’m entertaining them in some way and they come up to me and say, ‘Hey, that’s good stuff,’ they’ve seen it all so I know that I’m putting out quality work and that the people at home are most likely enjoying it as well. That’s how I attacked it.”

WWE has returned to live crowds regularly. The company is gearing up for its biggest show since the pandemic era. While WrestleMania was held inside a stadium at limited capacity earlier this year, SummerSlam will have the higher attendance. The event is being held inside Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Kevin Owens got fans talking with a tweet after his Hell In A Cell encounter with Sami Zayn where he teased taking time off from WWE.

Dave Meltzer provided some updates on the situation on the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio. He confirmed that the former universal champion will indeed be taking time away from the company.

However, Meltzer revealed that this absence is not the case of Owens taking time off for personal reasons or because of an injury. He is instead expected to stay away from WWE programming due to storyline reasons.

Last week’s episode of SmackDown saw the former NXT champion teaming up with Big E for a match against the Intercontinental champion Apollo Crews and Commander Azeez.

Azeez hit Kevin Owens with a Nigerian Nail to pick up the victory for his team. He delivered another Nigerian Nail to Owens after the match, leaving the former champion hurting badly after the bout.

• Kevin Owens On Why He Is Conflicted About Winning The IC Title Again

The Hell In A Cell PPV on Sunday then saw Sami Zayn scoring a win over his longtime rival in a hard-fought match. Owens was seen communicating a shoulder injury to the referee after the fight.

There is no word on how long Kevin Owens is expected to stay away. We will have to wait and see what the company has planned for him when he finally returns.

Sami Zayn defeated Kevin Owens last night at WWE Hell in a Cell 2021. Owens appeared to have gone into the match still suffering from injuries sustained on Smackdown last Friday night. Owens was pinned by Commander Azeez in a tag-team match after taking the Nigerian Nail to the throat. Zayn took advantage of his rival’s injury and picked up the win with a Heluva Kick after Owens had landed throat first on the ropes.

Owens took to social media earlier this morning and say he “needs a little break.”

Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn

During their time in WWE, Owens and Zayn have wrestled each other on WWE programming in singles matches 16x. Including house shows, they’ve wrestled each other 56x. Of the 16 matches that have taken place on WWE television, Owens has won 9, Zayn has won 4, and another 3 went to a no-contest.

Owens is a 7x champion in WWE. He’s held the Universal Championship once, the NXT Championship once, the Intercontinental title twice and the United States Championship 3x. As for Zayn, he is a 1x NXT Champion and a 2x Intercontinental Champion as well.

As a team, Owens and Zayn (as Kevin Steen & El Generico) are also former ROH Tag Team Champions. They’ve also won the PWG Tag Team Championships together twice. In 2010, the Generico vs Steen rivalry was voted “Feud of the Year” by the readers of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

Kevin Owens will get an opportunity to win his third Intercontinental Championship this Friday but according to the former champion, he will be fine even if he doesn’t win the title.

The former Universal Champion recently appeared on WWE’s The Bump where he talked about things such as his rivalry with Sami Zayn and more.

While discussing the upcoming match, Owens mentioned how he is a bit conflicted about winning the title because he is currently tied to Owen Hart for the number of days they have held the championship:

“As everybody knows, Owen Hart had a very positive influence on my career. What fans have pointed out to me in the past is that me and Owen share a birthday,

But also, we were both Intercontinental Champions twice.” said Kevin Owens, “If you add the total amount of days from our reigns, we both have the exact number of days as Intercontinental Champions.”

The former NXT star said that he almost doesn’t want to break this streak but he will allow it to happen because the current title has a new design compared to the last one which the wrestling legend and he both held.

Kevin Owens alongside Big E and Sami Zayn will challenge the current Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews in a fatal four way match for the title at this Friday’s episode of SmackDown.

• Kevin Owens On Talent Having To “Prove Their Worth” To WWE Brass

Check out Kevin Owens’ appearance on The Bump:

Kevin Owens battled his bitter rival turned best friend Sami Zayn with Logan Paul being at ringside as Zayn’s special guest at WrestleMania 37 on Sunday night. 

The match featured Owens getting the early offense until Zayn hit him with a brainbuster on the apron. Owens did later follow up with a frog splash off the top rope. Owens hit a stunner for the win. 

Post-match, Paul checked on Zayn then congratulated Owens for the win. Zayn was upset by it and confronted Logan about it. He shoved Zayn down then walked out. Paul raised the hand of Owens, but it got booed by the fans. Owens laid out Paul with a stunner. 

Paul’s involvement in this match started earlier this month when Paul accepted Zayn’s invitation as a guest for Zayn’s red carpet premiere of his documentary trailer that was shown on the April 2nd edition of Friday Night SmackDown. 

The trailer aired and showed him feeling that everyone was against him. Zayn asked for Paul’s thoughts following the end of the trailer, Paul stated put a lot of effort into the trailer. This led to Owens coming out and giving Zayn a stunner then telling him to stop with the conspiracies.

Owens brushed against Paul after he left the ring and later in the show, Zayn attacked him. 

The latest installment in the feud started when Owens told Zayn to stop with the constant conspiracy theories and Zayn fired back by saying that Owens is part of the conspiracy.

It was confirmed on Friday night’s episode of WWE SmackDown that Kevin Owens will be facing Sami Zayn at WrestleMania 37. The two men have a storied past and look set to add another chapter in April at the ‘Showcase of The Immortals.’

Appearing on Talking Smack, Kevin Owens discussed the upcoming bout against his long-time frenemie.

“It’s really hard to put into words what it means to our careers because we’ve been joined at the hip since we met, in what, 2002. That’s almost 20 years ago,” Owens noted on Talking Smack.

“I like to say we’re more like brothers than friends because we never chose to be friends with each other, right?” Kevin Owens continued. “Sami and I, where we came from, Quebec, it was really hard for people to get outside of the province and make their names in wrestling. But when we started getting a bit of a buzz.”

Kevin Owens on Sami Zayn

“All these wrestling companies — independent companies — would bring us together, and we had no choice” Owens added. “They’d say, ‘We want the best two, and that’s you two.’ That’s why I like to say he’s more of a brother than a friend.”

Kevin Owens finished by saying that Zayn is one of the ‘best in the ring,’ and he hopes to ‘knock some sense’ into the conspiracy theorist when they meet at WrestleMania 37.

“Of course, the last few weeks — last few months — the Sami Zayn that’s been coming out is not exactly the guy I’ve known for almost the last two decades” Owens said.

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“Yeah, sure, maybe he’s a prick, but I’ve always respected the hell out of him. But the problem I’ve had the last few months is this conspiracy theory stuff that he’s harping about in this alternate universe that he seems to live in. It’s taken him away from being one of the best in the ring. At WrestleMania, I get to knock [some] sense into him. If I’m going to do that to my brother, I can’t think of a better place to do it at than WrestleMania.

YouTube star Logan Paul has been announced for making an appearance at next week’s episode of SmackDown after his recent Twitter exchange with Sami Zayn.

This week’s episode of SmackDown saw Kevin Owens hosting the KO Show with Sami Zayn as a guest, following up from last week’s episode of the show where Zayn attacked the former universal champion with a Helluva Kick.

During the segment, Zayn announced that he will be hosting a red carpet premiere for his conspiracy documentary on the Blue Branded show next week and Paul will be his special guest:

The company also announced a WrestleMania match between the two during the show when KO challenged his long-time rival to a bout at the Show of Shows and the former NXT champion accepted this challenge.

WWE has been building towards an appearance from Paul recently. It started when Sami Zayn said that his documentary will do “Logan Paul numbers” in terms of viewership during the March 12 SmackDown episode.

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The YouTube star responded to this name drop on Twitter. The two have been exchanging words on the social site since then, hinting that the company was building towards something.

There is no word yet on if this will be a one-off appearance for Logan Paul but with WrestleMania being around the corner; it’s possible that he will end up getting involved in the announced bout between the two WWE stars.

Kevin Owens is one of the big names on the SmackDown roster at the moment. Even though some have felt he was being sidelined by WWE, his current rivalry with Roman Reigns has put him back in the limelight.

They have been going back and forth ever since. Some fans are complaining about the monotony of the feud, but it has produced some of the best matches of KO in his entire career. The two started feuding when Kevin Owens stood up to the ‘Head of the Table’ back in December. He then challenged him for the Universal Championship at TLC.

Following that, the two had a cage match and then another brutal ‘Last Man Standing’ match at the Royal Rumble. KO failed to secure a win on any of the occasions, thanks to help from Jey Uso and Paul Heyman. But the matches meant a great deal to him for a different reason.

Kevin Owens on Proving Your Worth

Kevin Owens spoke to FOX Sports about the significance of his rivalry with Roman Reigns. Owens says it’s been necessary to “prove his worth” to the WWE Universe as well as management.

“In a way, I never really felt like I had to show it to people, because I feel people know by now.” said KO. “But the nature of our industry and the way things work, and the amount of very talented people we have on the roster, just makes for an environment where you constantly have to prove your worth. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, right?”

Kevin Owens continued, “People within the industry or the company take things for granted. I think after all the years I have put in, and I am one of many… I am not just saying this about myself… but when the shows go on, the people in charge just go ‘Oh, they are gonna have a good match’. They take it for granted. They know it’s gonna be a good match, or they’re gonna be able to tell the story great, or they’re gonna be able to deliver this promo great.”

“It becomes almost as if it is expected of us, because that’s what we do. So then, it’s like… ‘Of course they had a good match’, so it’s not special. So, once in a while you have to have these special performances, that are a bit above than what you usually deliver, even if what you usually deliver is good.”

“Obviously, this story with Roman, was a big opportunity for me to do that again. And I think we accomplished it.”

The highly-anticipated showdown between Roman Reigns and Kevin Owens took place in one of the top matches featured on the card of Sunday’s WWE TLC pay-per-view event. 

Reigns put the WWE Universal Title on the line against Owens in a TLC Match. The contest had a brawling style with various yet expected weapons being used such as tables, ladders, chairs, and steel steps. Jey Uso was taken out after attacking Owens as “KO” hit him with a steel chair a few times. Uso later returned to stop Owens from climbing a ladder. 

Once again, Owens appeared to take out Jey with a powerbomb through the announce table. Owens buried him with objects at ringside. Reigns hit a powerbomb to Owens on a ladder in the corner then through a table on the floor.

At one point, Reigns went for a spear on the floor, but Owens moved and Reigns went crashing through the barricade. The finish saw Reigns connect with a low blow then applied the guillotine choke to Owens until he passed out. Reigns grabbed the title for the win. 

Reigns had been in a feud with Jey Uso for a few months before beating WWE Champion Drew McIntyre at last month’s Survivor Series pay-per-view event. 

This program started on an episode of SmackDown following Survivor Series in which Jey worked a match against Owens that led to the cousin of “The Big Dog” getting himself DQ by hitting Owens with a steel chair.

This led to Owens getting back at Uso by hitting several Stunners the calling out Reigns. The following week, Owens doubled down by challenging Reigns to this bout for the Universal Title, which Reigns accepted the challenge. 

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