WWE Superstar Kevin Owens recently pulled back the curtain on the creative process behind some of his recent high-profile angles and the journey to finally utilizing one of his signature moves, attributing key decisions to WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque.
Speaking on “INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet,” Owens discussed the unconventional attack on Cody Rhodes that was captured primarily via fan footage rather than traditional TV cameras. “It wasn’t me. That was Triple H. That was his idea,” Owens revealed. “He felt confident in doing it that way. I was not sure… is there even going to be enough people there? It turns out he was completely right.”
Owens framed this and other instances, like a unique angle involving Randy Orton captured partly via “security footage,” as indicative of a new creative direction. “It’s just a different way of telling the stories and he’s got a different mentality than Vince [McMahon] had,” Owens explained. “He wants to tell stories differently, and he’s willing to try stuff out and see what sticks and I think that makes the show way more interesting.”
This push for novelty is something Owens strongly supports, contrasting it with past periods in WWE history he felt became stagnant. “When it gets monotonous and repetitive, no matter how good the matches are… if you feel like you’ve seen it before… it’s just not the way we need to do things,” Owens stated, recalling times around 2008-09 and even 2016-17 where he felt the product lacked freshness. “I think we need different things… We need to try stuff, and it has to feel unpredictable and exciting.”
Owens also detailed his lengthy quest to get approval for his signature move, the Package Piledriver, in WWE. “Well, the package piledriver was something I’ve asked many times before, and it was always, ‘No, not right now, not today, doesn’t work, can’t do it’,” Owens recounted about requests under the previous leadership. “Until eventually it was, ‘Yeah, okay, let’s do it.’”
He revealed that even after getting the green light, he chose his spots carefully. He opted against using it on Randy Orton, delivering a standard piledriver instead. “I didn’t feel like hitting it on Randy was the best decision,” Owens said. “Randy is gigantic and quite frankly, I didn’t think I could get him up for the package piledriver… He’s just too massive.” He felt deploying the move on Cody Rhodes at a WWE SuperShow (formerly Saturday Night’s Main Event) “was the right time to do it.”
Adding a humorous note, Owens admitted feeling some pressure with the arrival of Penta El Zero Miedo, another wrestler known for using the move. “I knew Penta was coming… and I was like, he better not get to do it before me, because I will lose my sh*t,” Owens joked. “But it all worked out.”
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Chris Van Vliet with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
