Kevin Owens Was Told Not to Get His Hopes Up on the Main Roster

Maybe they were wrong. We’re head into “Wrestlemania XXXIII” and one of the more anticipated matches is going to see Kevin Owens challenging Chris Jericho for the United States Title. While Jericho has been in WWE for nearly twenty years, Owens has only been on the main roster for a little under two years. The interesting thing is what he was told when he was starting out.

Owens was recently interviewed on the “Steve Austin Show” and spoke about when he was signed to NXT back in 2014. A lot of people had questioned whether Owens had the proper physique to pull this off and it seemed that WWE wasn’t entirely sold on Owens in general either. This led to an interesting exchange with transcription courtesy of Wrestlinginc.com:

“When I got to NXT, I had no idea what or who I would be really. I got signed, but I was never given an indication of what the plans were, if there were plans. As a matter of fact, when I got signed, Canyon Ceman, who is Triple H’s kind of righthand man with recruiting talent, called me and said, ‘well, we’re going to hire you, but I was told to let you know not to get your hopes up as far as RAW and SmackDown goes because, as you’re aware, you’re maybe not somebody who Vince McMahon would gravitate towards. But you’re going to get your chance in NXT like everyone else.’ And my exact words back to him were, ‘well, I look forward to the challenge’ and he said, ‘well, I thought that’s what you’d say.'”

Owens was ready to stick to his guns though and credits that for his success:

“I got here because of who I was and they want me to be me. And I’ve always stayed true to that. Of course, there [are] little aspects of who I am, that I’ve played up at different times, like the last few months I’ve been more about being entertaining and this and that, but I feel like I’ve shown all kinds of shades of my character from the time I showed up with [John] Cena till now.” Owens added, “that’s what I was in Ring Of Honor. That’s what I was in PWG. That’s what I was on the indies for years. And when I got here, I just didn’t know if that’s what they wanted. Once I got the feel that is what they wanted, I went in headfirst and never looked back.”

Finally, Owens had a fairly unique stance on living in Orlando, Florida:

“I wasn’t okay with living in Florida for an extended period and I don’t know what made me say this, but I told her ‘once I’m on NXT television, I’ll be on the main roster in six months and we can move back home.’ And as much as she loves me, as much as she believes in me, she was the one to say, when a lot of people would tell me you’ll never get to WWE’ or ‘if you do make it, you won’t be successful’, she would always tell me that they weren’t right and that I would. As much as she loved me and believed in me, she still said, ‘well, guys stay in NXT for years. Like, it’s a nice thought, but come on!’ But then, if you do the math, I started in NXT on December 11th and May 18, I showed up on RAW and was called up and that was six months, so it came true.”

Opinion: As unique as Owens is, you certainly can’t argue with his success. Owens has been wrestling for over sixteen years and is on one of the best rolls of his career. Sometimes you just need to showcase yourself as you naturally are and this is proof that it can work on a grand stage.