WWE has pushed Kevin Owens to the top from day one. The fan-favorite veteran has had support from WWE higher-ups, but that doesn’t always prevent things from not going in his favor. However, KO has just opened up one one specific time he stood his ground to protect his spot.
The Prizefighter has had several notable battles with Roman Reigns. Owens recently spoke with Cody Rhodes on his “What Do You Wanna Talk About?” podcast and used a few interesting words to describe his lengthy feud with The Big Dog while revealing how WWE wanted to put he and Damian Priest together as on-screen best friends.
Owens earlier recalled how he refused the Priest pairing, telling the WWE official that no one would believe they were good friends in real life. In elaborating on the matter with Priest, Owens went on to reveal the real reason why he wasn’t interested: The Royal Rumble.
Kevin Owens Refused Damian Priest Storyline To Protect His WWE Royal Rumble Match
Kevin Owens lost to Roman Reigns in a 25-minute Last Man Standing Match at the WWE Royal Rumble in 2021, with the Universal Championship on the line. A war with The Bloodline led to the match, but Owens rejected an internal pitch to have Damian Priest called up to help him fight the heels.
On the latest episode of Cody Rhodes’ podcast, KO disclosed how he wanted to make sure the Priest pairing did not lead to WWE going with Priest vs. Reigns at The Rumble instead.
“It turns out somebody threw this idea out there, and it stuck for about five minutes until I said no. I don’t want to be best friends with him on TV [laughs], maybe in real-life, but let’s start somewhere, and yeah, it got killed, but he was going to take my match. It was going to be him vs. Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble. I was incensed. I said, ‘F**k no.’ But hey, for what it’s worth, I didn’t derail his career, he debuted on the main roster like two weeks later,” Kevin Owens said.
The Archer of Infamy and The Prizefighter have worked four singles matches, all taking place in 2022. Owens won on RAW in a #1 contender’s match, but one week later he failed to dethrone Priest of the United States Championship via DQ. Priest then retained over Owens the following month at two non-televised live events.