It’s encouraging to see Kevin Owens maintaining his heelish tendencies, as cited by him calling the WWE universe a “pretentious jackass.” He is being positioned as the babyface in this feud with Daniel Bryan because Daniel cannot go face after he has been so much of a heel. There’s plenty of reason to be confident in the ability of Kevin Owens to personify a good babyface, as he has mastered this role on the independent scene. It’s great to see Owens strategically incorporating the roots of his WWE character into the new role he is being asked to fulfill.
The next topic is Samoa Joe winning the United States championship. It’s about time WWE pulled the trigger on Joe and put a title on him because they were running out of opportunities with Joe already having been on the main roster for two years and being just a week from turning 40 years old. He absolutely deserves it. Corey Graves has said this, and I completely agree, that he “expected Joe to be in WWE a decade ago.” It will be extremely exciting to see what’s next for the Samoan Submission Machine, especially as WrestleMania rapidly approaches.
One other interesting topic of discussion is the return of the Hardy’s, particularly Matt. While one could’ve easily predicted Jeff’s return at some time, it was unclear as to whether Matt was retired, or not. It’s great to see him, and worth noting that he mentioned he wanted to work with Roman Reigns before retiring.
Side Note: There has got to be a plan in place for Kofi Kingston to challenge Daniel Bryan for the WWE title. Can I get an AMEN to that!