It looks like the current storm of WWE backstage is continuing. This time, it is in the form of Kevin Owens being pulled out from this weekend’s events due to “personal reasons.” On October 20, Owens was scheduled to compete in Buenos Aries, Argentina, to be a feature along with AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura, Jinder Mahal, and Sami Zayn. On Saturday, October 21, the same set of SmackDown Live talent are scheduled to compete in Santiago, Metropolitan Region.
After being in a heated feud with AJ Styles for the United States Championship, Owens transitioned his frustration over to Shane McMahon, the SmackDown Live Commissioner, due to feeling poorly and unfairly treated. Owens felt that the time Shane refereed caused miscues, which affected his ability to win the match and U.S. Championship. Owens’ frustration grew to bullying referees by removing their shirt and deciding to officiate their matches instead.
The feud with Shane McMahon elevated during an episode of SmackDown Live where he and Owens had a heated verbal exchange in the ring. Shane tried to stay in his role as Commissioner by keeping his composure, but snapped when Owens repeatedly mentioned his kids. This led to Shane’s suspension as Commissioner from the Chairman, Vince McMahon.
The desire to compete against Owens stemmed from KO viciously attacking Vince McMahon. This happened after speaking with the Chairman in the ring about his remarks regarding Vince’s family. Owens would defeat Shane in the Hell in a Cell match, due to assistance from Sami Zayn. The two would rekindle their friendship after years of being bitter rivals, even defeating the team of Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura on the most recent episode of SmackDown Live .
As of now, there is no further information on why Owens was reportedly pulled from this weekend’s WWE Live events. However, regardless of what it is, he is another addition to the proverbial dark cloud hovering over WWE in regards to people exiting for various reasons. Over the past few weeks, Neville has walked out of the company, Nia Jax asked for a short leave of absence, and Bo Dallas has been ill, which has also caused Bray Wyatt to be absent from television with the exception of vignettes leading to his match at TLC against Finn Balor.
[Featured Image by WWE]
