WWE News: Backstage News On Why Kevin Owens Tapped Out To John Cena At ‘Battleground’

Back in May, it looked like Kevin Owens was going to be WWE’s next big heel star. Owens’ main roster debut got rave reviews, and some called it the best debut since Chris Jericho came into WWE in the summer of 1999. Two weeks later, Owens defeated John Cena at the Elimination Chamber show, which surprised a lot of the WWE fans and got them thinking that WWE management must really be behind the then NXT Champion. But, apparently not all of them were, and some still aren’t to this day.

This past Sunday night at the WWE Battleground show, Owens lost clean to John Cena via submission, which, much like Owens’ initial win over Cena, surprised everyone. Some were expecting Owens to win and become the new United States Champion, while others were expecting Owens to lose via a Cesaro or Rusev run-in as he had recently cost them their U.S. Title matches with the champ.

Now, the question that’s being asked is, why did Kevin Owens lose to John Cena clean, in the middle of the ring, via submission? Well, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer has the answer to that question, saying that there are some people who are big decision-makers in WWE that thought that Owens would fail after he was called up to the main roster. Despite the fact that Owens is super-talented — they’re trying to book him to fail so that they can be proven right.

“To again explain this; there were two schools of thought on Kevin Owens from the start and the basic gist was that some people thought that he was going to make it and some people thought he wasn’t going to make it, and those who thought he wasn’t going to make it made sure that he got every opportunity to make it or else they would be wrong. You know what I mean? I shouldn’t say they would be wrong, they wouldn’t prove that they were right. So now whether he makes it or he doesn’t make it, there is a game going on and we’re in the middle of the game.”

After his loss this past Sunday night, Owens is being compared to Rusev, who was the hottest heel in WWE before he was matched up with John Cena. Also, their feuds with Cena are almost identical. Both Rusev and Owens won their first match with Cena, but they lost every subsequent encounter, which has really cooled both men off.

[Image via WWE]