Microphone work is among the most important aspects of a professional wrestler’s character. As a matter of fact, some would argue that a wrestler can have more success in WWE’s sports entertainment brand of wrestling with great mic skills and lacking in-ring ability than vice versa.
Fortunately for Kevin Owens, he has both. While his skills once the match begins are impressive, his mic skills are among the best in the WWE, and he is likely the best heel on the mic the company currently has on the roster.
Here are five times he proved just that.
Talking with his mouth full
While there’s nothing too special about this relatively short promo on Sept. 7, 2015, Owens was incredibly comfortable just walking up to Ryback with an apple, the simplest of props. What followed was funny, topical and related to what Ryback had going on that night.
It was also highly antagonistic and gave the audience that night, a sneak peak that Owens was perhaps the next man up for the Intercontinental Championship without going full-on “I am coming for your belt” like many performers might in the same situation.
As the French would say
For this one, Kevin Owens reminded everyone that as a Canadian, he knows a little French. But he did it in true heel fashion, insulting the crowd and attempting to get a rise out of them by being the arrogant, condescending foreign character he really doesn’t play up much.
What was fun was that he was on an equal footing with John Cena as the two bantered back and forth, with Cena even adding some Chinese on top of the French. Cena may have been the established WWE superstar at that point on June 22, 2015, but Owens didn’t back down.
Son of a Swiss
After his SummerSlam match against Cesaro in 2015, Kevin Owens was visibly tired backstage, seated in a hallway area apparently trying to catch his breath. Unfortunately, Rich Brennan was tasked with asking Kevin Owens a couple questions about his victory.
Despite his fatigue, Owens answered Brennan’s questions brilliantly, even calling Cesaro a tough “Son of a Swiss.” But the real gem came at the interview when he called Brennan “Milhouse,” a character from “The Simpsons.”
That name carried over to other interviews and was pure comedic gold.
Do you know?
In November 2015, Owens was the Intercontinental Champion but found himself in the tournament for the World Heavyweight Championship vacated by an injured Seth Rollins. As part of the tournament, he squared off with Titus O’Neil.
Owens got the win, and afterwards, he was found by JoJo laying on a rolling cart of some sort.
He did a great interview about his win and highlighted the potential to hold two belts, and even took time to give a rare compliment to his opponent – “Do you know how strong that man is?” – before complaining about the heat and rolling off on his cart.
Stop the wave
The most recent episode of RAW held an intriguing matchup involving six of the men contending for Owens’ Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 32 – Owens, The Miz and Stardust against Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn and Sin Cara.
For some reason, the fans weren’t into the match at all and started “The Wave” around the arena. Owens shut it down as only he could, and insulted announcer and frequent target Michael Cole in the process.
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