Does Kevin Owens weight hold him back?
 

Excuse the play on words in the title.

I have been wondering this these days.

On one hand, there are thousands and thousands of wrestlers in the world, hundreds of which ever make it on TV, tens of which make it to WWE and only a select few are featured in programs with the likes of Vince and Shane. Some would say that he has achieved so much that it is absurd to even suggest his weight and look could be an issue.

On the other hand though, is there a more well rounded guy on the roster? I don't think there is. He has great reactions, can talk really well, has great matches and has proven to be equally adept at playing the chicken shit or aggressive uber heel.

With that said, the question I am asking is, would Kevin Owens be the top heel in the company if he looked better than he does? Or do we think he has maxed out what he was able to do in the business?

I remember a conversation about sizes recently, but thought it would be interesting to have its own conversation.

To start things off, devils advocate...I think it's unacceptable that he looks like he does in such an athletic profession and I think it will take years off his career.

Thoughts?

Yes

No.

I feel Kevin body type doesn't effect him, espically as a heel. He has the body type that makes people underesitmate him. As a heel, that is a valued trait as people looking in, if they were truely willing to give Pro Wrestling a chance and watched the Characters, would see him as someone who should bully smaller wrestlers, but get beat by the chiseled gods. However when he does beat them, it makes them mad, and they begin to invest in the story of him.

Also, I do not believe the way he looks will take years off of his career, if anything the way he wrestles, It will save him some milage, as it's allowed his body to absorb bumps much better.

Why are Samoans the only ones who get to be fat athletic guys?

Destor confirmed Samoan.

Destor confirmed racist against white people.

Name a fat atheletic somoan that was a top guy thats gimmick wasnt "look at this freak show fat guy"

Also...i was born in hawaii...so maybe youre kinda right

People complain about his look now.

He gets in shape, people will complain that he looks like every other guy.

Can't please everyone.

It doesn't matter.

None of this matters.

We need more fat wrestlers

Name a fat athletic samoan who could talk like Kevin Owens.

And yet despite he can talk he stillmisnt good enogh to beTHE guy...because hes a fat turd in gym shorts

No considering WWE never had a problem pushing fat guys before in prominent roles. He's also pretty mobile and athletic for someone of his size compared to most fat guys the WWE ever had.

If he was Yokozuna or Big Daddy V type fat, could see that as an issue mainly in regards to his long term health.

A few interesting responses already, but will pick out this one to contend with.

Owens body type will cause him health problems, it's extremely unhealthy to have a gut that size. I am not chiseled specimen myself, but when I look at Owens, I still think, he looks unhealthy.

It's not only his barrel belly but he also has pasty white, flabby arms and Destor touched on his attire too. The whole thing looks lazy.

I like him, but I certainly don't get "guys will underestimate this one". I just keep thinking "I wonder how hard he tries to lose that". That's not a good thing to be thinking during his matches.

I don't think the mainstream audience cares. It's just something you hear from a vocal minority of the IWC, which itself is a minority in the total fanbase.

There are very few wrestling fans who are not online and involved in discussions.

Now more than ever before, the IWC outnumbers casual fans. The casual fans stopped watching a long time ago.

That is not remotely true. It's still a ton of parents and their kids. Who do you thinks uys up all that Cena and Reigns merch.

In an era where everyone acts and looks the exact fucking same, it's nice to see a fat fuck in gym shorts who can wrestle for a change.

The problem this thread will have is people wont answer the question.

The question isnt does his look bother you. Its will it hold him back. The answer is yes.

The answer to that is also no.

Laughable at best.

It won't hold him back until Vince decides it's the reason for some random angle not working

And you don't think those kids are on the internet talking about wrestling? Those kids probably don't have the same tastes as you or I, but they are much more aware of the goings on behind the scenes as we were back in the day.

One thing they probably aren't buying is a pair of KO gym shorts either...because it isn't cool, face or heel

Pretty much.

It holds him back as much as it held back Vader... or Dusty... or Bam Bam... or any other fat guy ever...

So itll hold him back then. Glad we agree

Oh so like...in the sense vince never got behind them and cut their tenures short. Great point.

We're getting into semantics now but when Vince does his Vince thing and does what Gertner said he's gonna do then no... that's not his weight holding him back. That's Vince not knowing what he's doing anymore and changing his mind on a whim. Something he can and does do for any reason.

Oh so if he had his talents and a million dollar body Vince would still turn on him?

Great argument. You're killing it.

What if Kevin Owens had Jinder's body, where would he be on the card?

Vader got dicked over in WWE, Dusty was made to be a joke and Bam Bam, despite headlining a Mania, was never a top guy and slipped down the card before he lost a squash to Goldust in his last match. I will give you Yoko and King Mabel though...although they were more for the freak size factor.

... He would probably come onto the roster, get a huge push, get de-pushed, win a world title out of nowhere, lose it, get depushed, win the title again, get depushed, etc. It's what Vince does with most guys he gets behind regardless of their body because he's scatterbrained when it comes to booking nowadays..

... It's also what he did with... ya know.. Kevin Owens...

#1DrofordFan

Aren't they both main eventers right now?

Nah...ish. they're upper missed in the long run at best. Will be lost in the shuffle on big shows and drift onto obscurity soon enough

Really? Is that your next step? To try to get under my skin by calling me the #1 fan of the TPWW poster I despise the most?

Well, it worked. Fuck you.

I think I said "right now". They're at least Smackdown Live main eventers as of right now.

Yes. They are main eventers.

Destor is doing the Droford "You're not right because of what's GONNA happen" tactic to get under my skin now. He's a sneakier troll than most.

Oh my.

Kevin Owens will never be The guy, No one will be The Guy except Roman Reigns, We can debate all we want, but Vince has it set in Stone that Roman Reigns is the guy.

Also wasn't Owens the guy on Raw, or atleast the Top heel of it for most of 2016?

Him and Jericho, sure.

There's a good chance Owens ends up dropping down to midcard in a few months when his storyline with Shane is over. There's also a very good chance he's back in the main event a few months later and has another title run soon after that. Because that's what happens with most of the main event guys regardless of their weight.

If you're going to use that to cement your opinion, then you can literally say anything can hold anyone back.

Christian's face.

Yeah, but there is a serious difference in talent. If Jinder's body can get him where he is with his talent, where could a fit Kevin Owens get to?

I don't see a lot of guys on Smackdown at the moment ready to leapfrog KO. I also think this Sami Zayn pairing has some serious legs. Who are the next biggest heels after that act and Jinder? Baron Corbin? I don't think he's ready for the main event. Rusev? I'd love to see them try again with him, but he's being beat up by Randy Orton every week. Either Orton turns heel again, Bobby Roode turns heel, or the Mojo Rawley turn ends up going very well.

He seems pretty safe up there to me. Unless they let the Usos just close shows. Which they could.

Of course i am, the topic is long term. Go read the op again if youre struggling to keep up.

Fan has admitted that one day vince will sour on him. This is because of his look. Its obvious to anyone to see. He will achieve less than a guy of his talent would if he took care of himself.

If we're using Jinder as the barometer then not being Indian holds Owens back more than his weight.

Nah, doing the things your boss likes is pretty standard work stuff

If jinder had steens talents hed be the top act kn the company for a solid 5-10 years. And vice versa. If steen had jinders look you wouldnt be able to hold him down if you tried.

Watching you guys try to reconcile "vince doesnt like fatties" with "owens is a fatty" is a good laugh tho

So does vinces opinion effect every part of the show or nah?

Vince has put the title on multiple fatties just over the past year...

Including Kevin Owens.

Vince could sour on anyone for any number of reasons.

Fuck, owens could lose a bunch of weight, and Vince could possibly not like how his matches look, since one thing Owens is very good at is using his weight in the ring.

I was referring to one particular in post when I said that. I see you're not struggling to be a fucking dickhead.

Yeah great point. Transition champions are totally guys fulfilling their maximum potential.

I take it back guys, ownes will not be held back at all as his skills probably dont warrant being a long term top guy. Im convinced.

Sorry, please dont threaten to leave the board. I hate to get banned.

As much as any of the younger guys have fulfilled their potential, yes.

Vince putting the title on fatties for months even though he hates fatties is an odd thing to do though. Unless Vince is just batshit crazy. I DUNNO.

Have a cry. No need to insult my intelligence talking about Kevin Owens in a forum that the situation had nothing to do with anyway. You're just being an asshole right now for no reason. Go talk about this in casual if you're still feeling some type of way. This is the wrestling forum.

Does it?

No.

Could it? Yes.

But so could anything else, and then again maybe none of it will, so at the end of the day who fucking cares

/thread

Not like we do. I doubt an 8 year old kid is talking about dislikes with WWE's booking

lol they turned kevin owens face, and Kevin Owens gym shorts would be a hot item for sure. Little gremlins will want anything you tell them to.

I wanted a Hacksaw Jim Duggan foam 2x4 so bad when I was a kid, and he looked like the drunk sloppy uncle that the family doesn't talk about.

If he looked athletic like Jason Jordan he would be THE guy imo. He is so damn great at everything but he won't ever be the main person in WWE with his look.

Sure he is very successful but he could be higher on the totem pole.

my thoughts exactly. If he was ripped to shreds there'd be something else "wrong" with him. Being a specimen hasn't helped Seth Rollins outshine the likes of Owens in anyway.

Hell... being the handpicked guy hasn't really given Roman Reigns much more success than Owens.


You can hate his look and you can see it as a negative, but it hasn't effected him negatively at all during his run. He's essentially a top guy and whether or not he was 40 pounds lighter or had less body fat % wouldn't change his position in the least.

I dunno man. When I was 8 all I wanted to know was what was going on behind the scenes. When I first heard Live Audio Wrestling on the Fan 590 when I was like 12, it was like my holy fucking grail. I pretended I understood what those goons were talking about, just to be on the "in".

No, it makes him a unique individual and marketable as such. If they didn't have shit writers.

I think it does. I think it does in the eyes of more fans than people realize too. I occasionally try a casual experiment every now and then, just because I wonder if I get in the bubble just like I think others do sometimes. I showed Kevin Owens to a friend and she was like "Oh, so he's a joke wrestler." This was because he was the opposite of what she thought a wrestler was -- he was short, fat, wore baggy clothes, spoke eloquently, did flips instead of "stomping". She thought his thing was that he was the anti-wrestler wrestler. She didn't take him seriously at all. That struck me as weird, because for all the things I nitpick about Owens, it didn't really all tie together like that for me.

Anyway, she hates most of the wrestlers, ESPECIALLY Dolph Ziggler, so maybe she just hates wrestling more than she implied, but yeah, I think the casual fan might expect completely different things out of a wrestler that they are going to take seriously.

I think the look holds him back with fans, and you just have to know that Vince hates that he's 60-whatever and looks better shirtless than Owens does. I'm sure he concedes that he's an uber-talented guy when it comes to talking and he's as sure-footed as a mountain goat. I'm not as big a fan of his wrestling as most though. But the company seems to think he's fun to throw out there, so I'm sure he'll just be a fatty that kills himself for entertainment to try and get the really important acts over until he can't do it anymore.

Do not body shame him. He is a victim. WWE rasslers clearly have no access to trainers, gyms or dietitians. It's not his fault. He prob has a bad thyroid or a spleen. Not his fault. Don't want people to ever say "diet Owens diet"

Lol Noid showing Owens to someone who isnt and never will be a wrestling fan isnt a good indicator of anything.

The usos are so dope right now they should be closing shows right now.

Owens is having a crazy good run in wrestling. Hes really only missing a few accomplishments to have done everything there is to do. Will he be Stone cold, or the rock or flair? No, but who is? Its not his weight that stops him from that, Its the business just isnt that big anymore. Hes as big in the business as you can get other than Cena.

No. He's a former Universal champion.

Other than Finn Balor who held it for one day, the only other people to carry that title are Brock Lesnar and Bill Goldberg. And Owens held it for a good six months.

I don't think his weight is holding him back.

It's an anecdote. I'm not basing a fucking case study on it. But it's challenged the way I think of how how talks and wrestles, and yeah, it's annoying me now. I always thought his promos were too "wanky" for a credible heel of his stature.

But we also got into that tiff because you think Owens looks "tough," and I think he looks like the guy who runs the local gaming workshop.

He was given the Universal Title because Finn Balor got hurt and they wanted to pimp that "New Era" thing. He was placeholding for the real men, and it only felt like the World Title once Owens lost it.

https://d1wst0behutosd.cloudfront.ne...?v2r1438934053

This guy isn't fat like Vader, guys. He's fat like the fans.

They could have given the title to anyone else on the roster for that 6 months though. Any number of non-fat guys. Then he lost it so it could be put back on Lesnar. Just like any of the newer guys would have done if they were chosen for that position. They've given Owens as much as they've given any of them.

I'm like half-with you there. They did choose Owens because of his talents. They have given him a lot. I'm just saying his image holds him back in the minds of fans and those in charge. They're not the same thing. I think, if anything, they have been too good to Owens. I don't think he's World Champ material, and I think his reign kind of proved that (but granted he was booked to be a subservient piece of shit too).

We'll never know the inner-workings of Vince McMahon's mind, but if Owens had done really well as the Universal Champion, there's nothing to say that Brock vs. Goldberg wouldn't have been done without the belt on the line. I mean, Owens was champion by the time Goldberg even comes in. The belt was moved into that heavyweight program because the men were taking the ball and running with it. The plan may have been Owens vs. Balor or Owens vs. Jericho should Balor not be ready. I assert there was a gear switch, but that's obviously just conjecture.

Feel like if he wasn't fat, he would look like just another bland vanilla midget indy guy.

This

In fact if he looked like Seth or Finn I would presume he would be trading wins with Dolph Ziggler. Vince is either gonna give a chunkier guy who looks different good treatment or Bastien Booger treatment. No in between. Owens gets booked well compared to the rest of his cohort. He is a constant focal point.

If you put Owens in Seth's body then he is the new face of the company. If you put Seth in Owens body then you have someone who is barely a mid card wrestler. And I like Seth Rollins more than anyone.

Unless WWE drastically changed their booking habits, they'd likely just be in the same positions they are in now but with a body swap.

Finn Balor has a better looking body than both guys and is just an inch shorter than Owens yet he's been stuck in terrible or filler feuds and as squash material for Kane.

Finn Balor looks like a kid.

Yeah, I doubt they care what color the ring ropes are this week.

Lol. Really Destor?

I’ve never understood the hate on Owens’ look. Some of the most bad ass guys in wrestling have been “big”

If he’s held back by anything at all, it’ll be by the shitty booking and/or Vince’s fickle point of view

Same goes for people who say they don’t “buy” certain wrestlers because they look like a normal Joe they feel they could take on in a real fight. I guarantee no one who makes this claim could really take on someone like Fin Balor, but they suspended disbelief enough to think they’d have chance against one of these guys, but not enough to just sit back enjoy a fucking match for what it is

He's early UFC Tank Abbott who was one of the most popular fighters of the early era. Nothing wrong with that.

I just think it could be argued that Owens looks unhealthy. It is the big gut and flabby, pasty arms that hurt his image. His attire is also pretty terrible.

People on here criticised Sting for wrestling in a t-shirt when he was over 50, for example.

As for Tank Abbott, he was radically and emphatically left behind.

But he doesn't look like a bad-ass...

Whether or not someone can actually take someone in a fight doesn't change the perception of them. It's a perception business. Guys who look worse might be perceived as tougher, and that's more power to them.

I generally hate non-traditional attire too. I hate Cena wearing the shorts. It just makes me feel that it's not being taken seriously by them, you know? You don't need to over-analyze to get that feeling. It's like someone running a marathon in a silly costume to me. I dunno, just can't take many guys who wrestle in street gear "seriously."

Honestly think Owens' biggest problem is charisma. He can talk and wrestle, but he just doesn't have that "it." I can already feel people getting angry about me saying it, but I just feel that he doesn't have that larger-than-life in him.

Controversial opinion: I think Kevin Owens could be the greatest manager of all-time.

That's true of a large portion of the roster, if not most of them.

It's hard to tell with the scripted promos. You can obviously see something behind it, but it's difficult to gauge the extent of what they're capable of when they're reading focus group approved drivel every week.

MORE CONTROVERSY: Elias has the most charisma on the Raw roster.

Maybe since the Miz left.

Ambrose is way more charismatic.

Oh yeah, how could I forget Miz?

Let me retract that a bit and say that Elias has a good amount of charisma.

I definitely think this is true. Owens can talk really well, and he does the scripted promos better than almost everybody, but it's still hard to really believe or invest in what is coming out of him. Like a dude with genuine charisma would come along and say "You're fat" and Owens would be done in the trash talking department.