WWE superstar Kevin Owens has revealed that American professional wrestling manager Paul Heyman once asked him to threaten to quit the promotion after the Canadian fighter was snubbed from WrestleMania 35. Owens opened up about it during an interaction with TNT Sports. When the roster of WrestleMania 35 was decided, Owens was confirmed to get an enticing one-on-one fight against Daniel Bryan. Though, the match card was altered eventually. Kofi Kingston was picked as Bryan’s new opponent. The change of plans, quite understandably, did not go down well with Owens, who was completely unaware of the reason behind the decision.
“When I wasn’t at WrestleMania 35, I didn’t understand why. I understood plans had changed and I was completely fine with it. I was like, ‘What else am I going to do? I can do something else on the show.’ But they’re like, ‘Nah. It doesn’t fit there, it doesn’t fit there. It doesn’t make sense.’ It was driving me insane,” Owens told TNT Sports’ Ariel Helwani.
After he failed to get any fruitful response from the officials, Owens directly approached the former in charge of RAW talent, Paul Heyman to clear his stance on this matter. According to Owens, Heyman back then suggested him to threaten WWE that he would leave the wrestling promotion. Owens found nothing logical in the suggestion and he was completely heartbroken at that point in time.
“I remember having a talk with Paul Heyman at a show [Raw or SmackDown] near Gorilla (position) and I was losing my mind. ‘Paul, I can’t believe I’m not at WrestleMania. He’s like, ‘I can’t believe it either.’ ‘What do I do?’ ‘Just walk in there and threaten to quit.’ I said, ‘No, that’s not how I’m going to handle this.’ ‘If that’s how you feel’,” Kevin Owens recalled.
{{/usCountry}}“I remember having a talk with Paul Heyman at a show [Raw or SmackDown] near Gorilla (position) and I was losing my mind. ‘Paul, I can’t believe I’m not at WrestleMania. He’s like, ‘I can’t believe it either.’ ‘What do I do?’ ‘Just walk in there and threaten to quit.’ I said, ‘No, that’s not how I’m going to handle this.’ ‘If that’s how you feel’,” Kevin Owens recalled.
{{/usCountry}}Owens even said that he had already reached America when he came to know about getting snubbed from WrestleMania 35. As soon as he learnt about it, the Prizefighter decided to stay away from the event and come back home immediately. “I flew back home to watch it with my wife and kids because I didn’t want to be anywhere near it. I flew back the next morning,” the 39-year-old recalled.
Owens currently remains out of action after sustaining an injury on an episode of Monday Night RAW. He suffered a broken rib at ringside when Sami Zayn and Judgment Day member Dominik Mysterio were battling it out in the NXT North American Championship. Mysterio finally prevailed in the bout to retain the title. Due to Owen’s injury, the WWE Undisputed Tag Team title, in all likelihood, will not be put on the line at this year’s SummerSlam, scheduled to be held on August 6.
Owens made his first appearance as a professional wrestler at the NXT TakeOver: R Evolution. He required only two months to announce himself on the circuit by winning the NXT Championship. Upon his promotion to the main roster, Owens took down John Cena in his maiden appearance. Since then, the Canadian has won a number of titles to become one of the finest in the wrestling scene in recent times.