Kevin Owens (c) vs. Dean Ambrose
WWE Intercontinental Championship
Many fans love Kevin Owens but I can’t help but think that most of these feelings are aftershocks from his feud with John Cena. Since his sacrifice upon the altar of HUSTLE-LOYALTY-RESPECT, Owens has been a solid mid-card guy and was rewarded with the Intercontinental belt. Whether you want to admit this or not, Owens’ first two matches with Cena have yet to be duplicated in any capacity. At least one of them will most certainly win a Slammy, if not multiple Slammys.
But since then, his matches have been mostly vanilla with some great mic work thrown in just to keep us interested. We know that Owens can wrestle but I’m still waiting for another surprising match that even comes close to what he did with Cena.
While the match itself is compelling because of the people involved, this feud hasn’t had nearly enough time to grow into anything close to interesting. Sprinkle in the childish antics that now pass for feud heat these days and you get a match-up that seems thrown together rather than evolved. And what was in that soda cup that Ambrose threw in Owens’ face? Acid? Why didn’t Owens just crawl through the ropes and put a beat down on Dean Ambrose for such a blatant show of disrespect? Remember how they built up Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar? These guys had a brawl that lasted almost 30 minutes, emptied the entire locker room and even spilled into the backstage area. And that was on just RAW.
I miss the days of the strong heel and the WWE has been without one for a long time. I miss guys like CM Punk or Triple H, who would talk trash and then when someone came down to confront them he would beat them (fairly or not) and then talk more trash. They were insufferable and hated but at least they didn’t back down from a fight. No, Lesnar doesn’t count because he was part-time and rarely spoke. This Intercontinental Title match could be the moment where both Owens and Ambrose showcase what they can really do inside the ring or it could be another paint by numbers display. I know fans are all in with Owens but the company is high on Ambrose and I won’t be shocked when the belt changes hands. My biggest fear is that despite what the fans think, Owens will eventually fall victim to the 50/50 club.
WINNER: Dean Ambrose
