In his latest piece for PWP Nation, Bruce Hart talks about the pending rivalry between Kevin Owens and the McMahons.
Greetings.
I’ve been watching with intrigue and consternation this contrived storyline involving Kevin Owens and the McMahons. In case you haven’t been watching, it’s gone something like this. A while back, Shane McMahon attacked Kevin Owens – which, for all intents and purposes, is pretty normal in the WWE, but for some reason, his conduct was deemed inappropriate and he was therefore suspended.
Subsequent to that, Owens came out last week on SmackDown and, in a long winded diatribe, claimed that because Shane had assaulted him he was taking legal action against him and the WWE, and, as consequence, he was now in control of the entire WWE. I found that to be pretty far-fetched and it made no sense whatsoever – about like Tom Brady, if he had been exonerated in the “deflate-gate” scandal, suing Roger Goodell and claiming that he was now in charge of the whole damn NFL.
In any case, after Owens belabored his hard to take seriously point for about fifteen minutes, out came the chairman of the board, himself – Vince McMahon. Vince proceeded to denounce Owens for being a fat, out of shape, slob and a lousy wrestler who owed everything he had to Vince and the WWE – none of which, I might add, had anything to do with Owens’ grievances against Shane. Vince then threatened to fire Owens, but reconsidered and, instead, said he would give Owens a chance to redeem himself, by fighting Shane in a “Hell in the Cell” match at the upcoming pay-per-view – the proviso being that if he defeated Shane, he got to keep his job.
Owens, of course, initially feigned reluctance at having to fight his nemesis, but finally agreed to fight Shane, but only if Vince promised him that he wouldn’t fire him if he did kick Shane’s ass. Vince said that he would agree to that and extended his hand to Kevin, to shake on it. Kevin shook Vince’s hand, but then, for no perceptible reason, head-butted Vince, busting his head open and then unceremoniously put the boots to him – as if that wasn’t grounds for Vince to fire him.
At that point, I figured that Shane, or perhaps Vince’s son-in-law – Hunter, might come charging down the runway and make the fired up, ass-kicking comeback on Owens for having busted open and assaulted the patriarch of the clan – which probably would have served some good purpose in igniting the fuse for the ostensible showdown between Kevin and Shane.
That didn’t happen though and, instead, Stephanie McMahon – who’s not much more popular herself than Owens came out to the ring to help Vince back to the dressing room which elicited a lukewarm response and did little or nothing to ignite the fuse.
Despite the fact that the setup was pretty convoluted and illogical, I still give props to Vinnie Mac for his awesome sell job – which was one of the more impressive performances by an actor in a supporting role that I’ve seen in a long time.
Even though, as I said, the set up could have been done better, I’m still looking forward to Shane and Kevin’s match, because both are extremely talented guys who seem to have a propensity for rising to the occasion when the chips are down. I might add that they’ll probably feel obliged to give all the “holy shit” mark morons an overdose of death defying, crazy bumps and “holy shit” high spots. If such is the case, I’d urge them to not push the proverbial envelope too far, because I would hate to see anyone get seriously injured out there.
As for the outcome, since Kevin’s on the regular roster and Shane isn’t, I would expect that Kevin will probably get his hand raised. I could see the merit however of having Triple H come running in on the finish with Shane in some supposedly dire situation and making the big, ass-kicking comeback on Kevin – which could set up a pretty hot showdown, down the road – perhaps at Survivor Series or some other major pay per view. I’m not really expecting that to happen, but it’s an intriguing proposition that could draw some big money.
On that note, I’ll call this a wrap for now, but will be looking forward to catching up with you next time for my predictions on the upcoming “No Mercy” pay per view.
Until then.
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Belaboured, yes, but in the end it was quite the setup for Hell in a Cell. I do see HHH being involved in the finish, but helping KO and not Shane. Setup Shane vs HHH in a family affair. You got the heat in that one, Steph, HHH, Vince, Shane. Wow! Father, wife, brother in law, sister. There ya go.