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For those not in the loop, on this week's RAW Kevin Owens uttered the ominous words 'I Quit'. The two words are as clear as day, but the worked nature of it indicates a lot to think about, in terms of what next for Owens.
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After losing an open Intercontinental title shot, Owens sat dejected in the ring while Toronto natives watched with bated breath.
Owens refused to leave uttering those very words mentioned. This preceded an Owens promo against Rollins complaining about how he left Smackdown hoping for RAW gives a change of pace.
That, of course, hasn't happened.
In the weeks since the draft, Owens and his best friend Sami Zayn went from battling one authority figure [Shane McMahon] to another [Kurt Angle].
Yet with Angle, it wasn't a full-scale fight, instead a psychological one as the now on leave GM put the two friends into matches against the powerhouse Braun Strowman and Bobby Lashley.
Zayn has gone out injured, with his return scheduled far in the distance. Meanwhile, Owens was left alone to fend off the destructive Braun, being bullied into submission multiple times including recently at Summerslam in a squash match.
With fortunes unchanged, the Intercontinental championship shot in his home country [whose residents he just alienated with a bit of French] could have been a new lease of life. It wasn't.
Instead, Owens delivered the iconic words 'I Quit'. Now, sure people can speculate and analyse all they want, but we know that this is just another worked angle from WWE. They've done it before and it has yielded interesting results.
One of the most fashionable and beloved being CM Punk's iconic Pipe Bomb Promo from 2011. If you don't remember, let's take a brief sojourn into WWE history.
Fresh off a PPV victory against Rey Mysterio, CM Punk got to challenge John Cena for the WWE Championship at Money in the Bank. At the same time, Punk's contract with the company was up. So the WWE decided to play an interesting game.
Punk called out WWE, management and the McMahon's for his treatment in their company. An elite talent no doubt, Punk felt wasted and pushed down under the thumb of Vince and his decision makers.
Eventually playing McMahon and John Cena, Punk threatened to quit with the WWE Championship. He did just that, only to return a month later. That's where WWE failed with the arc.
Punk should have lived up to his threats, headed off to the places he named in his scathing promo. Yet none of that happened and the arc fizzled out into nothing, Punk looked like a chump.
With Owens, WWE has a chance to rectify this in an interesting way. Sure Owens hasn't really left the WWE but for the sake of story those words 'I Quit' need to hold weight. WWE needs to allow Owens the freedom to play this narrative in interesting ways.
With no title to carry or any presumed push coming his way, it gives WWE flexibility with this arc. Similarly unlike 2011, in 2018 WWE and wrestling is in a very interesting place. The company has picked up talents from the independent circuit for the better part of the past few years.
They've also developed working relationships with Independent companies around the world. It's all part of Triple H's global expansion plan for NXT and the change for professional wrestling.
So why not really test the water of these relationships with an Owens invasion?
It'd be an interesting break for the once Prizefighter to go out of the WWE and stake his claim in companies such as the ICW, Progress or even EVOLVE Wrestling. Heck if they can get Cody on the phone and it sounds fun, why not have Owens go ALL IN.
Or better yet his former friend Chris Jericho is headlining a cruise for Independent wrestlers among others, have Owens sneak on board and cause some mayhem.
The potential is endless, the logistics a bit questionable. At best WWE could try with their working partners such as EVOLVE to give an interesting twist to this story while building up visibility for some of their lower tier partners.
With a talent like Owens, a main event prospect yet languishing, WWE could have the right guy to carry the global torch in a different way than expected.
All this falls back on WWE's storytelling abilities and there's no need to question that. Once in a while, the team can hit a jackpot unlike anything else. However, on a regular basis they've failed to deliver.
It's the same reason WWE sacrificed Punk's promising story at the altar of not wanting the WWE Championship away from TV screens [wow where was that with Brock Lesnar?]. Or had to course correct a perfectly mapped Daniel Bryan story into a Wrestlemania redemption, of epic proportions.
WWE has rarely created greatness in this past decade. They've mostly tripped onto everything and there's hope they trip into this one as well. Or at best Owens returns as a beloved face or even the ruthless prizefighter he has failed to be in ages.
