Since making his debut on December 11, 2014, Kevin Owens has been NXT’s most polarizing characters. His insincerity, cowardice, and arrogance have made him a most reviled figure in some circles of the NXT Universe, while another large group of fans seem to absolutely love him and everything he does, no matter how despicable the act he commits. Ironically, Kevin Owens is almost a reverse John Cena. In the case of Cena, his character is a true baby face, trying his best to do what is right and often receiving the disdain of a very vocal section of World Wrestling Entertainment’s Universe.
The Kevin Owens Theory: Mock Owens Mock
As a fan of NXT, I have watched Kevin Owens sprint to the very top of NXT. There is no question that Kevin Steen, the person, has handled that kind of pressure in a tremendous manner. He has become both my favorite and least favorite figures in WWE. While I respect his obvious talent and athleticism, his character gets under my skin like no other. When I watch Owens on NXT, I find myself getting incensed. Being a fan most of my life, that is no easy task, and I truly admire any performer who can do that.
If I was to meet Kevin Steen on the street or at a meet and greet, I would be pleased to do so and would happily tell him how much I hate his character. As a heel, his job is to make me hate him, and it is a job he does very well. If however, I was to attend an NXT taping or WWE event and the Kevin Owens character appeared, I would likely spew vitriolic hatred his way. As a fan with a grasp of how the wrestling business works, I should be able to clearly separate fantasy from reality and understand that the actions of Kevin Owens are reprehensible. So why are so many fans cheering for a character that so obviously is a horrible human being?
At first, I simply chalked it up to respect. Many of these fans have followed Steen for years before coming to NXT, and know how hard he has worked to get where he is. Now that he’s in NXT, they are continuing to be loyal to a guy they have been behind in the past. That could be the case, but if it were, why does Sami Zayn continue to get pushed aside by Owens supporters? His journey was parallel to Steen’s, so in theory those same fans should appreciate and love Zayn as much as Owens shouldn’t they? When these two have met, the crowd should react based on their characters if they respect both competitors, and yet, Owens seems to receive the same cheers no matter who he faces.
Some would argue that it is because Kevin Owens is an anti-hero. It’s a weak argument at best. He’s certainly anti authority, and if this were WWE’s main roster then the cheers would make sense. In the world of NXT, the only authority that exists is General Manager William Regal, another character that fans claim to love, but seem to enjoy seeing abused by Owens more. Using the example of Steve Austin, people were fans of his attitude because he never backed down from a challenge and applied it to everyone. There are elements of this in the Kevin Owens character, after all his motto is that he will fight anyone. The only hole in this logic is that the Owens character has demonstrated time and time again that he is a coward and completely insincere. That’s the kind of hole you could canon ball through.
Of course, there is the theory that Kevin is relatable. At first, this idea made absolutely no sense to me. How could any fan see themselves in a character like Kevin Owens? Kevin Steen, the person? Sure, that makes sense. Kevin Steen the person is a pretty good case study for someone who pursued a dream and accomplished it his own way. There’s real value in that. So, there is the possibility that fans who know Steen’s story are simply refusing to suspend their disbelief and have chosen to cheer for the man instead of the character. In doing that, there is no real harm I suppose, but it can ruin the illusion that others are trying to enjoy, or confuse those not familiar with Steen’s story.
It was at this point that I had a strange hypothesis. Kevin Owens is relatable to that segment of the audience because he is a satire of them. The fans cheering for Owens are likely members of the internet wrestling community, fans that have inside knowledge of the business. Since the dawn of the internet, fans have had greater access to the behind the scenes aspects of professional wrestling like never before. This has made for a more educated fan, which has at times worked against organizations like WWE when these fans have refused to go with the flow and rebel against the product being presented to them. It is fair to believe that this incredibly vocal cross section of fans have caused more than a few headaches for Vince McMahon. What if Kevin Owens is the personification of how WWE’s Chairman sees the IWC? Let’s examine the Owens character and compare it to the negative stereotypes often associated with the typical “Smark”.
One look at Kevin Owens and something is immediately apparent: he does not have the traditional WWE superstar body type. Owens looks like a more muscular version of someone who writes about wrestling from behind their computer screen rather than competes inside the wrestling ring. Looks can often be deceiving, and that is certainly the case for Kevin, who’s ability far overshadow his body fat percentage. If you were to judge Owens simply on his physical features alone, you would likely mistake him for a member of the crowd who wanted to be a wrestler, but just didn’t have the discipline.
His background is also important to this theory. Kevin Owens is an internet darling, so he is the perfect choice as the character to mock the IWC while they cheer for him. If this theory has any basis in truth, then you couldn’t have a guy like Baron Corbin in this role. He was trained at the WWE Performance Center, and never worked the independent scene like Kevin did. If the satirist was a clear WWE only guy, then there would be no irony to the joke. The IWC is cheering one of their guys, when in reality, he isn’t one of their guys anymore.
When looking at identifiable traits of the Kevin Owens character, it is quite easy to draw comparisons to the less admirable qualities accused of the IWC. Let’s start with the rocket ship rise of Owens to the top of NXT. There is no doubt that if he hadn’t been as talented as he was, Steen would not have been given the opportunity to be placed in a main event feud his first night in the company, and then win the NXT Championship within two months of his debut. A criticism often said of the IWC is that they are impatient and never satisfied. Too often on a message board or comment section the following statement will be seen: “They need to push (insert internet darling) more!” Now, sometimes they’re right, like in the case of Daniel Bryan, but a lot of times they just want their favorite guy on top without much other thought. When Kevin Owens arrived in NXT, he didn’t wait to earn a title match against Sami Zayn, he just pushed himself into the title picture. Some fans recognized this for what it was, but many of those IWC fans were elated because they didn’t have to wait for one of their favorites to get the push that in their minds, he had already earned.
Looking further at the Kevin Owens character, we see that he is a coward. He hypes himself as a man who will fight anyone, anytime, but we have seen in the past that nothing could be further from the truth. The Owens character talks a big game and runs his mouth, but when actually confronted, his true colors show and he runs away. Sounds like an allegory for online anonymity to me. Another stereotype given to the IWC is their increased bravery and bravado online, when in reality they are hiding behind a key board. While everyone does this in some format, some members of the IWC can take this to an extreme level.
Owens also hides his selfish motives behind the false idea that his repulsive actions are a way to better his family, when the truth is that his actions are to better himself. Some have accused the IWC of the same false motives whenever talk of hijacking a WWE event occurs, such as the now infamous post Wrestlemania RAW events where legions of smarks gather to try and hijack segments of the broadcast. Some online have defended those antics saying that it makes the show more entertaining, or justified it as a way of telling WWE what they really want. Others have accused the group of trying to make themselves the centre of attention at the expense of the hard work of others, which mirrors the exact tactic used by Kevin to get ahead in NXT. If there is any weight to the satirical nature of that character, then it’s likely that Vince McMahon falls into the latter of those opinions.
WWE Chief Operating Officer Triple H has been critical of the IWC in the past, with his most often heard critique being that those who have never laced up a pair of boots themselves can’t possibly understand how the business works. While there is certainly some gaping logic to that statement, the message behind those words has always been pretty clear. Triple H and those like him view the IWC as a group of entitled know it alls. While everyone is entitled to an opinion, and certainly there are folks online who have a great mind for the wrestling business, there are more than a few members of the IWC who seem to believe that because they pay for the service that Vince McMahon provides, that they are not only experts in said business, but could do a better job running it. One only need look at the latest Kevin Owens feud to see how the WWE brass feels about this.
WWE United States Champion John Cena has been performing weekly open challenges, with a variety of competitors answering the call and wrestling Cena in matches, typically with clean finishes. It has helped elevate the prestige of the United States Championship and given Cena the reputation of a fighting champion, which will in turn make whoever eventually defeats him a much bigger star. Recently, Kevin Owens answered the challenge, but in stereotypical IWC fashion, refused to follow the format. Instead, he talked down to Cena, equating his time on the independent scene and six months in NXT to the past decade that Cena has reigned a top the WWE mountain. It is truly a ridiculous comparison when one applies a little logic, but in the mind of Kevin and his IWC supporters, his words were gospel. After talking a big game, he then attacked the US Champion in characteristically cowardly fashion, proving once again that fight Owens fight, is just a catchphrase, all while the IWC cheered him, blind to the message behind his actions.
When one stops to think about it, if Kevin Owens is meant to be a physical stand in for smark fans, then John Cena is the perfect foil for him. For years, John Cena has been the poster boy for hatred in the IWC. Since 2006, he has been the recipient of mixed or even hostile crowds thanks to the groundswell of distain from smarks claiming that he only has five moves, to the staleness of his character, to his win/loss record. To argue which of these complaints are valid would be another topic unto itself and is a debate that has raged on and will continue to rage on likely for the rest of Cena’s Hall of fame career. No one has ever been more hated by the IWC than John Cena, and currently no one is more representative of that hatred than Kevin Owens. There is a reason that Owens vs Cena feels like the biggest feud in WWE online, because never before have the IWC had a man that so clearly is their guy. It just appears that maybe those cheering for Owens haven’t really stopped to think about the meaning behind that.
In the end, this is only a theory. It could be that all the comparisons here are simple coincidence, but when talking about Vince McMahon and WWE, we must remember that this is a company that in the past has openly mocked and humiliated their employees all for the amusement of one man backstage. Why wouldn’t the same mockery be applied to the paying public, with the same result in mind? As Owens fans continue to cheer for his character, is it so hard to believe that he is metaphorically mocking them? Holding a mirror up to them saying that this selfish, entitled coward is how those in WWE see you, and you’re not in on the joke. If Vince McMahon is indeed using Kevin Owens as an elaborate joke in plain sight, then those cheering for Owens need to remember something. As the owner of WWE, Vince McMahon gets to deliver the punchline of this gag, and as the old saying goes, he who laughs last, laughs best.
