On this week’s episode of Monday Night Raw , there was a bit of chaos with heel turns, big-time returns, and even an injury angle. While the injury to Kevin Owens was speculated to have been kayfabe — it now appears that it is real and much worse than originally thought. Though it was not actually Bobby Lashley’s latest beat down that caused Owens’ injuries, which have been nagging him for some time, it appears that Owens is likely going to be out for the long hault. His injury, however, has opened up the door for another WWE superstar, which is why Bobby Lashley turned heel.
After Lashley defeated Kevin Owens, a different side of the baby-faced former ECW Champion was shown. At the direction of Lio Rush, Lashley returned to the ring and continued a vicious assault on Owens which couldn’t be stopped by numerous referees.
Once everyone thought that Lashley was done, he went back again, wrapping the knees of Kevin Owens around the ringpost. Lashley repeatedly slammed Owens’ knees around the post and left him screaming out in pain.
WWE immediately released news that Owens had suffered injuries to both of his knees. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter , by way of Wrestling Inc. , is reporting that upcoming knee surgery will actually keep Kevin Owens out of action for anywhere from four to eight months. With that being said, Monday Night Raw is now without one of its top heels for a long time.
The full extent of the damage to Owens’ knees is not yet known, but if he ends up needing major surgery, it could keep him out for close to a year. Knowing that he will be off of Raw for at least four months, WWE needed to have another mega-heel to make up for his absence — and that is where Lashley comes in.
Wrestling Inc. is reporting that the idea to turn Lashley heel came just prior to this week’s Monday Night Raw . Knowing that Owens needs surgery, the decision to turn Lashley heel was made so that KO could be written off of Raw at the same time.
WWE is really looking at making the heel turn with Lashley work, as he has been received quite poorly since his return to the company. During Raw , Vince McMahon himself was feeding lines to Lio Rush through an earpiece to get the promo across convincingly.
This week’s Monday Night Raw was full of a lot of different twists and turns, but there was so much more to one angle than anyone realized. The loss of Kevin Owens due to injury is not good for flagging ratings, and WWE knows that it’s a big absence to have on the television roster.