Kevin Owens has been a major player on the main roster since debuting. How do his biggest feuds stack up when ranked from worst to best?
Kevin Owens has already had a noteworthy WWE career after quite some time on the main roster. WWE wasted no time putting Owens in an important spot with feuds against a few top names. Owens developed a strong reputation for contributing in every aspect of the job with great matches and memorable promos.
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WWE hasn’t always used Owens in a main event spot, but he certainly makes the best out of any role he is given. Few wrestlers have the versatility of Owens to always show his talent regardless of the placement on the show. Each wrestler to work with KO in WWE had differing results from great to forgettable. Every major WWE feud for Owens will be ranked to see which was the best.
The most noteworthy feud of Kevin Owens’ entire career may have been the WWE program with Braun Strowman. WWE was trying to protect Strowman at the time more than anyone on the roster outside of Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns.
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This led to the wrestlers he feuded with suffering from the booking involved. Owens was put in squash matches and embarrassing segments like Braun throwing him off the stage in a porta potty. Even the one win for KO came with Strowman throwing him off the cage through a commentary table to technically escape first.
Fans were ecstatic to see the rivalry between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles start in 2017. Both wrestlers were noteworthy names before joining WWE, but they never had a true program against each other with just a handful of singles matches.
Owens and Styles didn’t have the chemistry everyone expected when they feuded for the United States Championship. The matches were technically good, but both wrestlers felt off from their usually brilliant performances otherwise.
It is hard to define the Kevin Owens/Steve Austin story as a rivalry, but this will always remain one of the strong parts of Owens’ career. The promos from KO running down Austin made it feel more personal than most feuds with weekly interactions.
Austin didn’t actually appear until WrestleMania 38, and it worked to perfection. WWE having one final match for Austin gave Owens the biggest spotlight of his career with a strong showing. Owens truly proved he was a top tier superstar on this night.
Kevin Owens’ first title win on the WWE main roster saw him capturing the Intercontinental Championship in a match against Ryback. The rivalry between Owens and Dean Ambrose helped make the mid-card title feel more important.
WWE booked them in a handful of matches against each other, but the best one clearly came at Royal Rumble 2016. Owens and Ambrose delivered a violent masterpiece in the opening match using the Last Man Standing stipulation to steal the show.
The rivalry between Seth Rollins and Kevin Owens has seen them having multiple chapters. Owens winning the Universal Championship started that out by having Triple H attack Rollins to help his new favorite win the gold.
Rollins and Owens feuded for months with a great Hell in a Cell match as the peak. However, another program years later added more to their history when Owens was now the face and Rollins the heel. They had an underrated match at WrestleMania 36 during the empty arena pandemic era.
All three members of The Shield had relevant programs with Kevin Owens since they were all top names. Roman Reigns is another one to have multiple chapters of drama with Owens. The Universal Championship reign of KO saw Roman as the biggest name he defeated.
However, it was their second angle against each other with the roles reversed that was best.
After Jey Uso, Owens was the first challenger to Roman’s heel Universal Championship reign. The duo had multiple great matches and helped set the tone of Reigns’ title run that is still going today.
The recent return of Shane McMahon for an on-screen stint was polarizing, but Kevin Owens was among the few names he had chemistry with. Owens making life hell for Shane as the SmackDown Commissioner became a great story for the program.
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The Hell in a Cell match between the two was a rare hit from Shane’s time back in the spotlight. WWE brought their feud back when Owens was a face and Shane played heel. The program worked again with Owens being the one to send Shane packing after winning a Ladder match.
Kevin Owens’ best storyline on the main roster focused on his time as best friends with Chris Jericho. The Universal Championship reign of Owens is remembered for all the hilarious segments that KO and Jericho delivered together.
WWE decided to split them up by having Owens turn on Jericho in the all-time great Festival of Friendship segment. The matches between them weren’t as great as most other names on this list, but the storytelling was on point.
WWE decided to continue the feud of Kevin Owens vs Sami Zayn from the independent circuit and NXT. Zayn making life tough for Owens when joining him on the main roster caused them to make things personal again with multiple great matches.
Zayn finally getting his big win over Owens at Battleground 2016remains the most beloved match from their feud. The roles reversed later for another fun program with KO as the face winning out over Zayn at WrestleMania 37.
The first official feud for Kevin Owens in WWE came with his debut attacking John Cena. Owens going after the biggest star while getting called up as the NXT Champion made fans instantly take note of him as a big deal.
The shocking moment of Owens winning his first match over Cena cleanly stunned everyone watching. Cena won the next two matches to win the feud, but it gave us the best of Owens and helped him come off as a huge star from day one.
Joey is a writer with a decade of experience writing about sports, entertainment, and pop culture. Pro wrestling is his strongest passion with a lifetime fandom and countless live shows attended.