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Kevin Owens continues to be in awe at his ability to persuade “Stone Cold” Steve Austin to come out of retirement.
On the final SmackDown of 2022 on Friday night on Fox, Owens teams up with John Cena, his first-ever opponent on the WWE main roster, to take on Sami Zayn and Roman Reigns, a rivalry that dates back decades. He discussed his long relationship with Zayn, his full circle relationship with John Cena, and the significance of the Austin match at WrestleMania 38 with The Post.
Owens expressed his thanks for his match with Austin at WWE’s biggest event earlier this year as we approach the Royal Rumble and the start of WrestleMania season.
Owens remarked, “I still don’t really understand how that occurred. “All I know is that I was informed by a number of individuals, including Steve, Vince McMahon, and Bruce Prichard, that it had to have been you — i.e., me — with Steve. I’m unsure of who came up with the idea, who requested it, or how it came about. I’ll discover it eventually. But the point is that the fact that all three of them believed I was the greatest option is incredibly flattering to me. For me, that is the highest compliment possible.
Austin’s first match in 19 years was won by Owens, but more than that, it went above and beyond all expectations. Although Owens has held the title of WWE world champion, the Austin match may have been his most important achievement to date.
Owens remarked, “It doesn’t get any better than that.” “I said it the day after the game: From here, it’s all downhill,”
His ongoing story arc with Zayn is one among the many subplots of the tag bout Owens has Friday on SmackDown. The two have been engaging in fictional wrestling matches as either friends or adversaries for more than 20 years. They were originally known as Kevin Steen and El Generico and competed all over the world. In a tremendously exciting storyline that is front-and-center in WWE’s programming, Zayn, who kicked Owens in the family heirlooms to help Reigns’ Bloodline side win the WarGames main event of Survivor Series, is currently riding a bizarre wave.
Although there has just been on-screen betrayal, Owens is happy for his pal.
During the 22 years that I have known him, Owens said, “He has always been an amazing performer, and it’s great to see people now taking note of that and starting to appreciate that as much as they should.” “He’s finally receiving the praise he has long due. There’s no doubting that our careers will remain intertwined and connected at this point. Whether we are teaming or battling, we will inevitably return to each other. It has been quite exciting to watch him progress.
When asked to guess the number of times they’ve shared the ring, Owens yelled out the MithGifs Twitter handle.
She’s a great admirer and is familiar with all of our careers, said Owens. “She has gone back and watched every single match involving the two of us from our independent career to WWE, and she writes these essays about our careers on her Substack, which I highly suggest. She’s what I’d call a Sami and Kevin historian.
The account’s owner has discovered 300–400 instances of Zayn and Owens competing together, but he believes there are actually more than twice that many.
It’s not even close, I promise. It is so much more. We’ve played so many shows that no website would have ever heard about in remote parts of Quebec or the entire planet, Owens reflected. “If I had to hazard a figure, I don’t believe it would be overstating things to say that it is unquestionably close to 1,000. We have 20 years of experience in this. It’s fantastic
In 2015, when Owens defeated Cena in his first bout on the WWE main roster, it became clear that he was someone to take seriously. Owens names Cena as a mentor despite the two’s on-screen conflict occurring years ago.
Owens remarked, “John and I kind of patched things up a long time ago. “We haven’t faced off against one other in the ring in a while. For a very long time, he has been an incredibly important resource to discuss WWE and wrestling in general. He served as an excellent sounding board for ideas and whatever I could do to improve as a performer, even when we were rivals, if you want to call it that. He had the position of absolute authority in the industry for so long that I couldn’t have imagined not leveraging that resource.
»Kevin Owens doesn’t ‘really grasp’ the Steve Austin match«