Kevin Owens: The Anatomy Of A WWE Promo

Kevin Owens is awesome. Whether you first met him as Kevin Steen, or whether he pop-up power bombed his way into your consciousness as Kevin Owens, it’s no secret that the man is one of WWE’s hottest players right now. And when he turned on his ‘best friend’ Chris Jericho in Las Vegas, his hot streak only intensified. His show-opening promo the following week did not disappoint, in part because of the story being told but also because of the techniques he was using in order to make his promo that much more impactful.

First, the ring staging. KO sat on a steel chair in the very centre of the ring, a microphone in his right hand and his left hand curled around the rim of his championship belt. A single spotlight lit him in the ring. None of these were particularly subtle techniques, but the point was hammered home even before the man opened his mouth – pay attention everyone, because at this moment in time, Kevin Owens is comfortable. Kevin Owens is the champion and Kevin Owns is the centre of the universe. This gave him the platform upon which to build a solid promo, a task he would have found much harder had the lights been up or the chair been missing.

His delivery was excellent, for a number of reasons. First, the majority of his promo was either delivered with his head bowed down and his eyes to the floor, or looking straight down the camera. Both of these positions disregarded the live audience, which sent the signal that what KO had to say transcended this crowd. There were no cheap, location-specific lines here for easy heat – this promo felt important because it felt non-specific to one arena, and therefore more relevant to the entire WWE Universe.

Owens varied up both his pace, his volume and his intonation. It’s speech-giving 101, but a point overlooked by a surprising number of WWE performers. Because of this, his promo followed the patterns of normal speech, and hence felt both natural and sincere – and the audience loves nothing more than a man who believes his own hype. Imagine the impact the promo would have had (or lack thereof) had it all been delivered in a dull, steady monotone.

Note how KO acknowledged the crowd throughout. Not with his whole body, but just his head. This feeds in to a wider point about his promo, and that’s how still he was throughout. By cutting down on the amount of physical movement in the segment, all the audience had to focus on were his words. And when he did choose to make a physical motion, such as standing up, it felt like a calculated movement which served a purpose instead of a random choice, all of which heightened the impression that here was a man in full control, a man with power and a man we should take interest in.

And he showed us exactly how to avoid the “What” chants so symptomatic of a typical WWE live crowd these days. By starting the first word of his next sentence in the same breath as his last, he often avoided the natural rhythm of sentence-WHAT-sentence-WHAT-sentence-WHAT that the WWE crowd so loves. His delivery of “In fact, I never believed the hype. Even <breath> Even when I was….” exemplified this small yet effective tool. Most fans will agree that a “What” chant during a promo has the potential to ruin its impact, and so by countering this with his delivery Owens made sure that his promo mattered.

He also peppered his promo with small, barely noticeable shakes of his head. It was the sort of confident gesture which implied that the audience just didn’t get it, that he had a perspective the audience lacked, that he was in some way one step ahead of everyone else. By doing so he added another layer to his performance, which helped him more easily exude an air of confidence, power and control that ultimately held the audience’s attention for the whole promo.

Will Kevin Owens drop the Universal title to Goldberg at Fastlane? Probably. Will he find a way to remain over with the crowd even without the gold? With in-ring work like his, sure. With promo skills like his, absolutely.