Kevin Owens has made arguably one of the biggest impacts ever since debuting on the NXT brand of WWE on May 18, 2015.
With one year behind him, a Reddit user by the handle of /u/bootybootybootyrocki has compiled a fascinating statistic for fans of the Prizefighter to gawk over.
Other than the Undertaker, Kevin Owens just became the only wrestler in the history of the company — at least on the active/part-time roster — to appear on every pay-per-view in the first year of his debut.
But while Taker did so first, the Deadman’s accomplishment is not quite as impressive as that of Kevin Owens’ for one simple reason.
Undertaker debuted in 1990 when the WWE was only holding four pay-per-views a year (five in 1991). Taking that into consideration and comparing it to the now monthly format, Kevin Owens is actually the first wrestler to do it in the current environment.
So while he may not be holding the World Heavyweight Championship as many fans would like to see, his paychecks have likely been the best in his career.
In fact, The-Net-Worth reports that when signed to the NXT brand, he was earning $8,000 per month, but that quickly went up when he made his debut on the main brand and began his historic PPV run.
More from the Redditor.
“With Kevin Owens’ match at Extreme Rules , he becomes only the second wrestler currently in WWE to have had a match on every single PPV main card that occurred in his/her first year on the main roster. The first was The Undertaker.
“[Furthermore,] If she wrestles at MITB , Charlotte will become the 3rd wrestler from the current roster to do so.
“Since the list of WWE alumni is so big, I limited myself to doing the research from today’s main roster, and so far, only The Undertaker has had a match on every single PPV that took place for the full year after his debut as part of the WWE main roster.”
Perhaps more impressive than the appearances and the paychecks, however, are the quality of the matches that Kevin Owens has put on, stealing the show at both WrestleMania 32 and Payback earlier this year.
It is not a resume that he takes lightly either.
One year ago today, I showed up on Raw for the first time. Year 1 was pretty successful. Let’s see how I can make year 2 even better… @WWE
— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) May 18, 2016
Also worth mentioning is that in his debut PPV match, the then-NXT Champion pinned the company’s mega-superstar John Cena clean in the center of the ring.
(Of course, he dropped the next two to John, but made a stronger statement by power-bombing him on the apron and putting Cena out of commission for a few weeks after their second encounter.)
By all accounts, the WWE brass are high on Owens for the quality of his in-ring work as well as his skills on the microphone, in spite of the fact that he doesn’t have a “look” that Vince McMahon has been fond of historically.
Whether that means the company’s top prize will continue to allude him in 2016 remains to be seen. WWE is now at one of its most injury-prone moments in history, so anything can happen if the talent ranks thin out.
In the meantime, it is likely that Kevin Owens will continue to be a mainstay on the Intercontinental title scene.
With a work ethic like the one pointed out by the above Reddit user, he should not go hungry either way.
What do you think about this accomplishment, readers? Is Kevin Owens deserving of it? Sound off in the comments section below.
[Image via WWE]