5 Reasons why Kevin Owens replacing Kofi Kingston at Fastlane is a big mistake

On this week's episode of SmackDown Live, there were a lot of shocking things that occurred during the show, such as Matt Hardy returning to reunite with Jeff Hardy to take on The Bar, R-Truth retaining his United States Title against two worthy competitors in Andrade and Rey Mysterio.

But the biggest shock occurred during the opening segment of SmackDown, which was a contract signing between WWE Champion Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston to make their title match official for Fastlane.

Before Kingston could sign on the contract, suddenly, Vince McMahon's music hits. He congratulated Kingston for achieving all the success in 11 years of his WWE career but says he can't let him compete against Bryan for the WWE Championship at Fastlane as it wouldn't be a "box-office" attraction. So he replaced him with a returning Kevin Owens.

Now, this replacement wasn't appreciated by The New Day, neither was it appreciated by all the fans watching the show. So, here are five reasons why Owens replacing Kingston at Fastlane was a big mistake...

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#5 WWE could have saved Daniel Bryan vs. Kevin Owens for WrestleMania 35

Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan during contract signing.

There were rumors that Daniel Bryan will defend his WWE Championship against Kevin Owens at WrestleMania 35. Before Owens' return, there were many video packages to hype his return, that were pointing a change in the character of KO.

It was rumored that Owens would return as a babyface, as he has been a heel for a very long time, but his humorous nature has always lead to fans demanding for a babyface turn. But WWE completely threw all of that out of the window when Owens took Kingston's spot in the WWE Championship match at Fastlane.

A babyface Kevin Owens against a heel Daniel Bryan could have been a worthy main event for the show of shows. Not only it would have provided fans with a fresh rivalry, but this feud could have been one of the most interesting WWE Championship feuds in recent years.

#4 Kofi Kingston's momentum going into Fastlane

Kofi Kingston after pinning Daniel Bryan on SmackDown,

Think about all the momentum Kofi Kongston had going into Fastlane. He was one of the hottest stars on SmackDown, with an ultimate underdog storyline which could have made his entire WWE career successful.

Since replacing an injured Mustafa Ali in the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship, the momentum has constantly been shifting towards Kingston.

He put a tremendous performance in the gauntlet match, competing for more than an hour and eliminating some of the biggest stars of the blue brand which included Samoa Joe, Jeff Hardy and even WWE Champion Daniel Bryan.

He was the last superstar to be eliminated inside the Chamber, lasting nearly half an hour and eliminating another big star, Randy Orton. After this event, Kingston pinned Bryan again on SmackDown to earn a WWE title shot for Fastlane.

With all of this momentum, WWE should have utilized this opportunity at Fastlane but instead they had to replace Kingston because this match was not worthy enough to main event a pay-per-view.

#3 Fans wanted to see this match

Kofi Kingston smashes Daniel Bryan's head onto the steel chains.

Three months ago after the TLC pay-per-view, Vince McMahon announced that they have been failing to listen their fans and from this point all the McMahon's (including Triple H) will be running WWE programming together. They also informed that from now onward, the fans are the authority.

While they have made significant changes to WWE programming, by giving more time to every other superstar and bringing in new faces form NXT but still they have messed up most of the times by screwing fan favorites from their opportunities.

Just recently, they pulled a fan favorite Becky Lynch from her match against Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 35 and replaced her with Charlotte Flair.

Similarly, they pulled Kingston who was also a fan favorite from his WWE Title match at Fastlane by replacing him with Owens. Now there might be a long-term plan for Kingston, but as of now its just annoying the fans who have been clamoring to push the New Day member.

#2 Kofi Kingston could have become the new WWE Champion

Kofi Kingston points towards WWE Title.

To repeat the words of Kofi Kingston "I'm going to beat Daniel Bryan and become the WWE Champion". Just imagine if these words would have come true at Fastlane, Kingston would have received the biggest moment of his WWE career after 11 long years.

While, some believed Kingston had no chance of beating Bryan at Fastlane even if he wasn't replaced by Owens, but WWE was strongly considering to put the title on Kingston following the reactions he received during the gauntlet match and in the Elimination Chamber match.

There have been instances where we had unexpected WWE Champions, just to remind you of one, Jinder Mahal which was by far the most shocking title change in the history of the WWE Title.

Similarly, Kingston could also become WWE Champion, though this title change would have been shocking it would have been overwhelming too.

Maybe it's possible, that WWE gives Kingston his big moment at Wrestlemania and that's the reason they replaced him at Fastlane but its also possible, that they completely ignore this storyline and move onto Owens against Bryan at WrestleMania again.

#1 Missed opportunity to break-up The New Day

The New Day could have imploded at Fastlane.

Before the scheduled match between Kofi Kingston and Daniel Bryan at Fastlane, there were rumors that Big E was possibly going to turn on Kingston and cost him his title match at Fastlane. Then Big E would go on to have a WrestleMania program with Kingston.

Sure, this move will be a risky one for WWE, since The New Day is one of the most established and successful groups in WWE today, they have a record-setting merchandise sales even more than some of the top WWE superstars.

So it won't be an easy decision for WWE but in the past when The Shield imploded, that was even more of a tougher decision, so WWE will definitely not hesitate to pull the trigger for The New Day to finally split as singles stars.

The only problem is timing, Fastlane was the right moment for The New day to implode but with Kingston out of the WWE Title picture, WWE missed an opportunity to break-up The New Day.

It's possible that this break-up still ends-up happening mostly before WrestleMania but it won't be as great as it would have been at Fastlane.