Kevin Owens is currently scheduled to compete in a fatal four-way match at Extreme Rules for the Intercontinental Championship. The other participants in the match are Sami Zayn, Cesaro and the champion, The Miz. However, the fatal four-way status of that pay-per-view match may now be in jeopardy as it pertains to Kevin Owens. The former IC champ may have suffered an injury during a live event Sunday, according to a report from Daily Wrestling News .
The extent of the injury is not known at this time. Kevin Owens was wrestling Sami Zayn in Columbia, South Carolina, with Zayn winning via his Blue Thunderbomb. After the match was over, referee Charles Robinson threw up the dooming “X” sign in an effort to signal for assistance from the back. At the time of the report, there were only two others who attended the event that were able to corroborate the story, with only an additional two mentions of the possible injury on social media.
Kevin Owens debuted on WWE’s main roster in May of 2015, with his first match coming, of course, against John Cena at Elimination Chamber . Including the Chamber, Owens has competed in 12 straight pay-per-views (not counting WWE Network specials), without missing a single one. Extreme Rules would be, in Owens’ case, unlucky number 13 if he was unable to participate.
As noted, there is no definitive word on Owens’ status as of this writing, so everything could have been precautionary. Fans will get a clearer picture of his availability on Monday Night RAW, which will be the go-home episode before Sunday’s Extreme Rules. Luckily for WWE, the Intercontinental Championship feud has three other superstars involved, so the easiest thing to do would be to just move forward with a triple threat match with The Miz, Zayn and Cesaro if Owens can’t go. It might be too late in the game to add someone else to the mix to take KO’s spot, unless perhaps, there was a slight chance Neville was able to return from his injury, though that seems doubtful at this point.
On last week’s WWE First Quarter Earnings Report conference call, Vince McMahon stated that there have always been injuries in sports entertainment, but it’s just reported-on more nowadays. But in just less than a year, the company has suffered a rash of them unlike any other time in recent memory. Headliners like John Cena, Seth Rollins, Sting, Randy Orton and Bray Wyatt have all forced the company to shuffle the deck, while complimentary talent like Cesaro, Neville, Zayn and Enzo Amore have all been forced to the IR as well. A setback to Kevin Owens would just be another in a long line of injuries to a company ravaged by them.
The Inquisitreven reported last week that AJ Styles has been sufferingfrom some nagging injuries that forced WWE into holding him out of competition from last week’s Smackdownand live events. The company wants to make sure the number one contender is as healthy as possible for the main event at Extreme Rules. Styles will certainly be worth keeping an eye on during this week’s programming leading up to the pay-per-view Sunday, but talk about bad timing for contenders for the top two championships in the company.
Ironically, Kevin Owens is scheduled to wrestle Styles and Roman Reigns during one of the shows in Tokyo when WWE invades Japan in July. The following night, Owens will reignite his rivalry with John Cena, flipflopping spots on the card with Chris Jericho. Those events (yet to be advertised as a WWE Network special) are always subject to change, but it gives a potential glimpse into where WWE officials see Owens a year into his tenure in WWE.
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