Kevin Owens Reflects On Feud With John Cena, Seeing Cena’s Passion Up Close

Kevin Owens made an immediate impact on the WWE main roster when he confronted John Cena on the May 18, 2015 episode of WWE Raw. Owens, who was the reigning NXT Champion, went on to defeat Cena at WWE Elimination Chamber 2015. 

On Friday’s WWE SmackDown, things will come full circle for Owens as he teams with Cena against Roman Reigns & Sami Zayn. 

Speaking to Peter Rosenberg on Cheap Heat, Owens reflected on his feud with Cena. 

“I remember, vividly, Triple H telling me on the afternoon of a NXT show in Philly that I was going to start Monday on Raw. I was getting called up and that was it for me in NXT, and I was going to start with Cena. I was like, ‘Oh, woah, that was quick.’ Also, somehow, I can’t tell you how, but I knew that’s how it was going to happen and it would be that quick. I remember telling my wife, we had moved to Florida for NXT and it was a difficult thing to do, we had a three-month-old daughter at the time and our son was only six, and it was taking them away from our families back in Canada, it was very tricky. I remember telling her, ‘Okay, give me six months from the moment I show up on NXT TV and I’m going to make it to the main roster and we can move back.’ That seemed to be a very unattainable goal, but that’s exactly what happened and I don’t know how. Maybe I manifested it, I don’t know, but I knew, somehow, a month or two before I got called up, I started seeing the landscape and the open challenges. I remember thinking, ‘let me put that out there.’ I did a promo class at the Performance Center talking about how I was going to answer John Cena’s open challenge on Monday. I don’t know if me saying it would plant seeds somewhere, maybe it did because some people at promo class were talking to Road Dogg, who was doing what he’s doing now, and Sami had answered an open challenge, and two weeks later I was the one answering. I remember that, and being amazed everything worked out the way it did. At the same time, not being surprised at all because I felt it already,” he said.

Owens continued, “Getting to work with John, being around him and his energy, we ended up working together all summer because he was still doing the live events at that time. Seeing the passion of a guy who, at that point, really didn’t need to be as passionate as he was for this. He was already on the cusp of doing his stuff in Hollywood, he was by far the biggest face in the company. He showed up at every live event and gave it his all. If he wasn’t in the ring, he was at the monitor watching the show. I saw in John Cena what I was myself, but I saw it at a level of, this guy doesn’t need to be doing any of this, he just wants to do it. That was really cool and very admirable. Now it’s all circling back around and we get to team on SmackDown. It’s another thing to add to the list of experiences I’ve had in WWE that are surreal and I’m thankful for.”

Elsewhere during the interview, Owens revealed a recent text message he received from Cena. You can find his full comments by clicking here. 

Fightful will have live coverage of WWE SmackDown beginning at 8 p.m. ET on Friday. 

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