When Kevin Owens came out to accept John Cena's US Open Challenge, it was surprising, but not exactly shocking. After all, Sami Zayn had already competed against Cena, so it had been made clear that NXT Superstars could accept the challenge. However, Owens wasn't there to accept the challenge, in fact, he made it clear that the United States Championship was pretty much beneath him, which was scintillating since Cena had just put over the US Championship as being of severe importance. It went from Owens answering the challenge to him pretty much putting himself over Cena and promoting his match on Wednesday against Sami Zayn. Owens beat down Cena at the end of the segment, which was pretty surprising, but even then it felt like just a cool segment that WWE would store away for later.
In his promo, Owens said that Cena and he would eventually fight, and I took this as meaning that they would meet eventually, but that time wasn't going to be in the near future, it was more likely that they would meet in a year or two. So when Owens announced that he had a match against Cena in two weeks at Elimination Chamber that really came across as shocking to me. I don't think anybody doubts Owens' ability, but he has only been in the WWE for a few months, and while he has gotten a big push in NXT, going from developmental to wrestling the biggest star in the company on PPV is a huge leap, even for someone as talented as Owens.
Now that we know their segment on Monday was the start of a feud that is starting sooner rather than later, it is interesting to reexamine it. For one, Owens is the best talker that Cena has feuded with since CM Punk, and unsurprisingly, Owens sounded a bit like Punk when he was talking to Cena. When Owens mentioned that he has in fact, been wrestling longer than Cena (during a time when Cena is being portrayed as the elder statesmen of WWE) was certainly something that Punk would say, and it was also something that probably wasn't scripted.
A disappointing trend during Cena's United States Championship reign has been the predictable promo that Cena has cut every night. He comes out, he talks about how he is representing the United States and everyone cheers because hey, you can't boo someone that loves America. Before Owens came out, Cena had cut this B promo to some mild cheers and he even spotted some servicemen to point out in hopes of getting even more of a cheap pop. But when Owens came out and cut his promo, Cena retaliated by breaking his Captain America character and cut his best promo of the year. Cena isn't bad on the microphone, he is actually very good, but sometimes he needs someone to drag his best work out of him. CM Punk was able to do it, The Rock was able to do it and now hopefully Owens will be able to do it as well.
So what happens at Elimination Chamber? The story so far with Cena and the United States Championship is that he defends it against younger talent (Cody Rhodes, Neville, Zayn) and they have good, back-and-forth matches, where Cena gives his opponent a lot of offense but ultimately he comes up victorious. This is not a bad strategy, Cena has been having some really good matches and for the young guys, especially rookies like Neville and Zayn, just being able to hang with Cena is a big accomplishment. It would be reasonable to expect something like that to happen at Elimination Chamber.
I hope they don't though, there is just too much potential for greatness between Owens and Cena for them to have Cena go over Owens on their very first match. Cena beats a lot of people, he just finished off a one-sided feud with the previously unstoppable Rusev, but it would be a big mistake to have Owens join that list. As unrealistic as it sounds, I think Owens should go over and go over cleanly. Owens should not have to cheat to get the victory over Cena, even if that is WWE's consistent go-to for giving guys victories over Cena. Owens is a heel, he is a narcissist with a mean streak a mile wide, but he isn't a cheater or an outright dirty wrestler. Owens wins his matches by beating his opponent to a pulp and that is part of the reason he has become so successful in such a short time in WWE. If WWE truly cared about building stars and creating a feud that could propel their business upward, they would let Owens beat Cena, clean.
***
I figured I would use this time to write a little bit about Samoa Joe. Joe's debut was one of the most surprising things to take place in wrestling in the last half-decade or so. Since the Monday Night Wars ended, there has been a huge lack of impressive debuts in wrestling. Because there is no true national competitor for WWE, there isn't a lot of talent that could randomly appear in WWE and make a big impact. Samoa Joe and maybe AJ Styles are pretty much the only two guys who could really show up in WWE and a majority of fans would have an idea of who they were. Doing it in NXT, where the fanbase slants more towards the hardcore fan, was the right move and if Joe showed up on the main roster he probably wouldn't have gotten as big of a reaction. His debut was kept very quiet, and both Joe and WWE kept their cards very close to their chest and the result as a genuine surprise.
To those who are worried WWE is going to misuse Joe: Don't sweat it. People figured they would misuse Punk when he arrived; that didn't end up happening. Same thing for Bryan, Zayn, Neville and Owens. The fact that WWE allowed Joe to use his wrestling name from TNA and the Indies shows how much they value him already. I personally never thought we would see Kevin Steen and Samoa Joe in a WWE ring together, so maybe it is time we start changing our projections of what we think about WWE?
Here are my star ratings from NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable:
Finn Balor vs Tyler Breeze: ***1/4 Neither man's best work, it seemed like from a match standpoint they really missed Itami.
Finn Balor vs Tyler Breeze: ***1/4 Neither man's best work, it seemed like from a match standpoint they really missed Itami.
Charlotte and Bayley vs Dana Brooke and Emma: **3/4Decent match, but I don't know how much more is left for Charlotte to do in NXT.
Baron Corbin vs Rhino: ** Quick slugfest between two heavy hitters. Time for Corbin to ride or die in NXT. Put him in a 15 minute match with a good worker like Breeze or Balor and see what happens.
Blake and Murphy vs Colin Cassady and Enzo Amore: *** Not technically brilliant but a lot of fun. Amore and Cassady should really be on the main roster, at the very least they could be a 2015 version of Too Cool.
Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch: **** I found the match a little bit too long, however, they reached a level of drama in the match that most Diva's matches never even come close to approaching. I really liked the finish as well.
Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn: **1/2 Forgettable match, but it doesn't really matter all that much since all anybody is going to remember is Samoa Joe's debut. Quality heeling by Owens.
Kevin Owens Vs John Cena And What Could Be Feud Of The Year, Samoa Joe
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