Kevin Owens Leaving ‘SmackDown Live’ After ‘Hell In A Cell’?

Sunday night’s WWE Hell in a Cell pay-per-view features the bitter rivalry between Shane McMahon and Kevin Owens. This rivalry has been going on for months, as Owens has felt that he was unfairly treated by Shane, who is the SmackDown Live Commissioner. Particularly, during his feud with AJ Styles, is when the wedge between Owens and Shane widened.

As shown during the video highlighting the timeline of their feud, Owens and Shane did not see eye-to-eye from the very beginning. While SmackDown Live has been coined as the “land of opportunity” since the brand split, Owens felt that he was brought over from Raw due to him being an asset, as he was United States Champion. Owens quickly defied Shane, which stirred friction between the two.

Incidents such as Owens’ shoulder not fully being down during a defeat to Styles, along with Shane quickly assuming the referee position and pinning Owens’ shoulders to the mat in another match, all were heavy contributions to the Hell in a Cell match that will occur at the event of the same name. Perhaps the biggest fuel to this fire was when Owens assaulted Vince McMahon during an episode of SmackDown Live, giving him a ferocious headbutt. In addition, he punt-kicked Vince, along with superkicking him and executing a frog splash.

While this feud has been a very good non-title consolation for Owens on the blue brand, it may be a way to get him momentum to jump over to Raw. According to PWInsider, the level of stardom built from this feud with Shane will mark the beginning of the end of his SmackDown Live tenure.

Regarding who will win the actual match, Owens is still the favorite. However, this is always subject to change. Especially, since Owens gained an advantage over Shane this past SmackDown Live episode, powerbombing him through a table in the merchandise area near the concessions and continuing to beat him down in the ring.

Typically, with Owens gaining that kind of momentum before the match, it builds enough heat for Shane to look better when he is victorious. In addition, there has also been speculation that Sami Zayn could get involved in the match to get retribution from his recent post-match attack following their bout on SmackDown Live. Either way, it sets up a highly anticipated match for Sunday night.

[Featured Image by WWE]