Kevin Owens should be champ; Seth Rollins-CM Punk feud not expected to run short
The Sunday Notes look at why a new WWE champion should have been crowned last week
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Kevin Owens should be the new WWE champion
Imagine if “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase bought off the referee, yet Andre The Giant still failed to win the world title.
Go back even further. Suppose Ivan Koloff hits Bruno Sammartino with the Russian Leg Drop at Madison Square Garden but comes short in his quest to win the belt. There would have been no stunned crowd, and no lasting moment to stand the test of time.
Unfortunately, that was exactly what we saw last week on Saturday Night’s Main Event when Kevin Owens failed to defeat Cody Rhodes for the WWE championship. It was a missed opportunity of epic proportions.
Owens still added to his highlight reel. After the show went off the air, he bludgeoned Rhodes in the ring with a package piledriver. That caused Rhodes to get stretchered out of the ring in a neck brace. Following that attack, Owens got into a pushing match with Paul “Triple H” Levesque in front of the curtain, generating even more interest on social media.
But it all would have meant exponentially more had Owens won the belt.
Instead, it will all fade away after the rematch, which will likely happen next month, once again, on Saturday Night’s Main Event. WWE is wonderful at providing these nostalgia-inspired shows, but the possibility of creating a new memory was at their figurative fingertips–and they failed to capture it.
When Owens threw Rhodes into referee Charles Robinson, the stage was set. Owens could have put Rhodes on the shelf with his package piledriver, even cheating by hitting the move on a steel chair (or hitting Rhodes with the chair for good measure). When Robinson then regained consciousness to count the winning pinfall, the crowd would have come unglued.
Now that would have been a moment.
It would be the current story, just with staying power. Owens could have still had his shoving match with Triple H off the air, giving WWE the social media metric they badly desired. Rhodes could have still sold the injury, which was described in storyline terms as axial compression of the cervical spine and a cervical strain with spasm. And Owens could have still arrived at the WWE-Netflix press conference this past week, except with even more panache as the WWE champion.
Rhodes’ return will be worth watching. He will get his Yet it isn’t nearly as significant as it could have been because Rhodes didn’t lose anything.
It is hard to believe that the power brokers in WWE slipped on such a tailor-made chance to generate an incredible reaction heading into the New Year. Owens mocking the crowd with the title around his waist on the first Netflix Raw would have been exceptional. This route, however, with Owens pretending to be the real world’s champion has been played out. It offers nowhere near the same caliber of staying power it would have had Owens won the title.
Instead, we’ll likely build to a rematch later in January at Saturday Night’s Main Event, perhaps evoking more nostalgia by holding the bout in the big blue cage. Rhodes will return and emerge victorious, but absent will be the air of unpredictability that makes pro wrestling so special.
Owens hasn’t held a world title since 2017. That doesn’t appear to be changing any time soon.
Punk-Rollins still headed for WrestleMania
CM Punk has been feuding with Seth Rollins for more than a year.
In an incredible manner, the rivalry further intensified after Punk got hurt during this past January’s Royal Rumble match. That put him on the shelf, yet it did nothing to slow down their feud. Even more impressive was that Punk was also battling Drew McIntyre at the time, which led to an iconic Hell in a Cell bout this past October.
Now that Punk’s feud with Rollins has finally got physical, they’re not going to rush the finish. Despite recent rumors to the contrary, Rollins and Punk are still expected to engage in a lengthy feud, which includes a match on the January 6 edition of Raw that doubles as the Netflix debut–but that’s not all. Their feud will take them all the way to WrestleMania, which will begin another fascinating stretch for both men.
Punk’s feud with Roman Reigns can wait–and it will wait. First and foremost, it is all about finishing the story with Rollins, which began in November of 2023 on the very night that Punk reappeared in WWE. This feud is not going to be pushed aside in one match on Raw, even if it is one of the biggest editions of Raw in the history of the show.
So where does that leave Reigns? And what about Rollins after WrestleMania?
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