6 Best Kevin Owens WWE Matches

The Prizefighter Kevin Owens has accomplished so much in five short years in WWE. He’s a former Universal Champion, Intercontinental Champion, United States Champion, and hopefully soon a WWE Champion. Owens has brought the fight to some of the biggest superstars such as John Cena, Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, and Chris Jericho to name a few.

Here are the five best Kevin Owens matches, and a short preview outlining the events leading up to the match.

 

6. Kevin Owens (c) vs. Seth Rollins (Universal Championship) – Clash of Champions

On the August 29, 2016 episode of Raw, Owens was handed the vacated Universal title in a fatal four-way match, after Triple H screwed his golden boy Seth Rollins by hitting him with a Pedigree. This was Owens’ first title defense and The Prizefighter utilized heel 101 tactics”,” to systematically dissect Rollins while trash-talking the entire match.

Unfortunately for Owens, most of his championship reign was overshadowed by the ongoing storyline between HHH and Rollins. Owens’ then-best-friend Chris Jericho ran down to help his buddy retain his Universal title”.”while heels cheat to win, Owens was made to look like a footnote who couldn’t successfully defend his title by himself. This was still a hell of a contest though and worth a watch.

 

5. Kevin Owens (c) vs. The Demon Finn Balor (NXT Championship) – Beast in the East WWE Special

This was Finn Balor’s homecoming returning back to Tokyo, Japan from his Bullet Club days. While Balor triumphantly won the NXT Championship, in my opinion the real star was Kevin Owens. Before the match started, Owens disrespectfully threw the bouquet of flowers customary to Japanese tradition.

Throughout the entirety of the match, Owens mocked the crowd while systematically destroying their hero. There are dozens of near-falls in this highly-intense championship bout, The Demon had to execute three monstrous Coup de Grace’s to win the NXT Title from the dastardly heel.

 

4. Kevin Owens vs. Shane McMahon – Hell in a Cell 2017

To understand how things escalated for Owens and Shane McMahon,t The Commissioner of SmackDown Live, we need to talk about Owens getting drafted via the Superstar Shakeup after WrestleMania 33. Owens was told that SmackDown Live was the land of opportunity for years, except all Owens received were losses.

At SummerSlam 2017, Owens challenged AJ Styles for the United States Championship with Shane as the special guest referee and lost. A few weeks later, Owens decided to make things super personal, by bringing up Shane’s “real-life” helicopter accident that he survived. Owens brought up how Shane’s family, including his kids, would have been better off if he didn’t survive. The commissioner took matters into his own hands and proceeded to beat the hell out of Owens.

Owens decided to take the cowardly way out and threatened to sue the WWE until the Chairman of WWE, Vince McMahon, had a face-to-face confrontation with him. Vince then told Owens there would be no lawsuit, but a Hell in a Cell match between Shane and Owens instead. Owens then busted Vince wide open with a vicious headbutt, and Shane then made their Hell in a Cell match Falls Count Anywhere.

 

3. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn – Battleground 2016

The build-up to this match was absolutely incredible as WWE’s production team took us down memory lane., Sami Zayn was included in Kevin Owens’s wedding and even the birth of his son Owen. Zayn and Owens have such a storied rivalry going back to their days in Ring of Honor. The hype video also highlighted their violent and chaotic feud in NXT (I’ll get to that in a minute).

Zayn returned from injury at the 2016 Royal Rumble and eliminated his so-called best”-“friend, then Zayn cost Owens his Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 32, and, finally, Zayn cost Owens the Money in the Bank briefcase. So Owens and Zayn came to a consensus that, this toxic rivalry needed to come to an end at Battleground.

What makes this match so amazing is that both best”-“friends were willing to kill each other, and the WWE Universe was on fire for the entire match. Do yourself a favor and go watch this incredible match.

 

2. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn (NXT Championship) – NXT TakeOver: Rival

I’ll be honest, it was an incredibly hard choice to decide between number one and number two. The build-up to this one began at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution, where Owens viciously attacked his so-called best”-“friend after he triumphantly won the NXT Championship from Adrian Neville. Owens made history, headlining a Takeover two months to the day of his NXT debut.

Owens was purely acting out of malice and envy, that Zayn got the call to WWE before he did. The cold-hearted and sadistic Owens completely and unmercifully obliterated Zayn in one of the most highly-anticipated Takeover matches to date. Owens did what he needed to do to claim the richest prize in NXT, and delivered four thunderous Pop-up Powerbombs to win the match via referee stoppage. It doesn’t get any better than that, does it? Well, actually, yes it does.

 

1. Kevin Owens vs. John Cena – Elimination Chamber 2015

On the May 20, 2015 episode of Raw, Owens shocked the world when he answered John Cena’s United States Championship Open Challenge. Owens surprised Cena with a Pop-up Powerbomb heard around the world, and disrespectfully stomped on the US title, all while hoisting his NXT Championship. Over the next few weeks, Owens would mock Cena’s Five Knuckle Shuffle, and even wear t-shirts with “the champ is here” slogans to taunt Cena.

Owens went toe-to-toe with the long-time seasoned veteran of WWE and had him reeling half the match. Owens proved to the WWE Universe, to his opponent, and to the powers that be that he truly belonged on the main roster. In his first match on the main roster and first pay-per-view, Owens defeated Cena clean in the middle of the ring. That’s almost unheard of and the only instance that remotely compares to that is when Cena made his WWE debut against WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle.

There you have it, those are the five best Kevin Owens matches, I know there are a plethora of others that I didn’t mention on here, however, I feel confident that these are fantastic matches that highlight Owens’ vindictive and cold-hearted character to a tee.