What’s the story?
In an interview with USA Today’s For The Win, WWE Universal Champion Kevin Owens spoke about how he and WWE Champion AJ Styles have followed similar paths to get into the WWE. Owens also discussed his real-life friendship with fellow Raw superstar Chris Jericho.
In case you didn’t know…
Owens began his wrestling career as a teenager in his home country of Canada. During his early years, he wrestled for promotions like Combat Zone Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla before making a move to Ring of Honor. He returned to PWG in the year 2010 and worked with them as well as ROH until July 2014.
On 12 August 2014, it was announced that ‘K.O.’ had signed up with the WWE and was assigned to their developmental territory, NXT. After having spent slightly less than a year at NXT, Kevin Owens earned a promotion to the main roster in May 2015.
The heart of the matter
‘The Prizefighter’ said that he and AJ Styles would not have enjoyed this much success in the WWE had they taken a different route to get there. According to him, the career path that they took helped them reach a stage where they could make a seamless transition to the WWE and garner success very quickly.
Although this did not imply that it is the best way for everyone to go forward, people like him and Styles had no other option in his view.
This is what Owens had to say:
I think for A.J. and I both, if we had taken another route, I don’t know that we would have been as successful as we’ve been in WWE. I think the career path we took was instrumental in getting us to be who we are now as performers, as wrestlers, and getting to be so successful so quickly once we got here.
But there’s many ways to make it to WWE. Our career path isn’t necessarily the only way or even the best way, but for us and the kind of performers we are, there was really no other way. For us, there was no other option. This is how it had to be.
About his friendship with Chris Jericho in real life, Kevin Owens said that they always got along well but they started to grow closer ever since their ‘best friends’ storyline began on Raw and are now really good friends. Apart from the fact that he had a lot of respect for ‘Y2J’, being from the same country also helped establish a strong bond between them. Owens told For The Win this:
“We always got along, but I don’t know that we were that close. The more we appeared together on RAW, the closer we grew, and we’re really good friends now. I always had a lot of respect for him, not only because he’s one of the biggest WWE superstars of the last decade, but also because he’s Canadian and I’m Canadian. There’s a almost like an unspoken bond that just kind of happened naturally when you’re from the same place.”
What next?
Chris Jericho has helped Kevin Owens retain his WWE Universal Championship by interfering in his matches on a number of occasions. However, Owens will have his work cut out at the Royal Rumble this Sunday when he defends his title in a No Disqualification match against Roman Reigns with Jericho suspended high above the ring in a shark cage.
Sportskeeda’s Take
Kevin Owens may be portraying a ‘heel’ character at the moment but has received a lot of support from the WWE Universe, particularly after being associated with Chris Jericho. With all the experience they have gained working for different promotions throughout their respective careers, wrestlers like Owens and AJ Styles have truly managed to raise the performance bar in the WWE.
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