Kevin Owens On Being A Late Draft Pick: ‘It Was A Slap In The Face’


We’re a few weeks removed from the WWE draft, but former WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens is still bothered by the fact that he was a late draft pick, as he was selected with the 18th overall pick by Monday Night Raw.

Owens was drafted seven picks after his longtime rival, Sami Zayn, and he was even drafted later than The Miz, which came as a bit of a surprise.

During a recent conference call, Kevin Owens said that he took being drafted late as a slap in the face, adding that he’d use it as motivation to become the face of Monday Night Raw. He also said that he understands not being picked above Dean Ambrose, John Cena, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Charlotte, so he doesn’t think that he should’ve been the first overall pick, but he does think that he should’ve been drafted a lot sooner than he was.

“I was picked way later than I should have been. I mean, I understand not being picked before Roman Reigns or John Cena or Ambrose or Seth Rollins, those guys have been the figureheads of WWE for several years now. I even understand being picked above Charlotte, who was the Women’s Champion at the time, and who was the face of the Women’s division. Even Finn Balor, who was coming up from NXT — he’s a big deal. But being picked as late as I was was kind of a slap in the face, to be honest. But I’ll use it as motivation as to why I should be the face of Raw.”

Kevin Owens has recently teamed up with former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho on the Raw brand, and it looks like they’ll be the next team to feud with Enzo Amore and Big Cass. It doesn’t look like Owens and Jericho will be a long-term tag team, and they’re likely being thrown together due to the lack of depth in Raw’s tag-team division.

Most believe that Owens should be a top singles star on the Raw brand, but so far, WWE hasn’t positioned him as such. In fact, Owens hasn’t really been treated like a top guy since his feud with John Cena last year. But, with both Raw and SmackDown suffering from a lack of depth, Owens may be stepping into the main-event scene sooner, rather than later.

It’s often been said that WWE would give Owens more of a push if he had a better physique. Many believe that he’d be the face of WWE if he had the physique of someone like Triple H. But he doesn’t, and at the age of 32, he probably won’t be making any drastic changes to his body.

Even though WWE hasn’t fully gotten behind him, Kevin Owens remains one of the most popular WWE stars, even though he’s a heel. Right now there are no plans to make him the top heel on Raw because Seth Rollins is in his way. But, he may move up into that spot after SummerSlam if Rollins doesn’t defeat Finn Balor to become the first ever WWE Universal Champion.

It wouldn’t be such a bad idea for WWE to move Kevin Owens into the title picture if Finn Balor wins the Universal Championship later this month. Owens and Balor had some fantastic matches together down in NXT, and they’d certainly continue to have fantastic matches together on the Raw brand.

It’s going to be interesting to see what WWE does with Owens in the coming months. They’ve somewhat made a storyline out of Cesaro’s displeasure with the WWE draft, so they may do the same with Owens’ displeasure.

[Image via WWE]

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