Kevin Owens On Vince McMahon Talking Smack During Their Segment, Shane McMahon's HIAC Jump
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn are currently embroiled in a feud with SmackDown Live commissioner Shane McMahon. During this past summer Owens even had a run-in with WWE chairman Vince McMahon. On a recent episode of the Talk is Jericho podcast, Owens and Zayn discussed their experiences working with the first family of the WWE.
Owens unleashed a vicious beatdown on Vince McMahon during their now-infamous segment from the summer. Owens said he didn't feel nervous going into that show, but once the segment was actually happening he began to feel some butterflies because of the aura McMahon carries.
"I really can't remember being worried about it. It was pretty crazy because we talked earlier in the day and then I am in the ring cutting a promo, and then his music hits, it was Vince McMahon walking down the ramp," Owens said. "I'm thinking to myself, 'holy crap.' It's a different animal then when you are in his office or seeing him in the back."
Owens headbutted McMahon, busting him open immediately. He continued to attack him and hit him with a frog splash before security separated them. Owens said he was satisfied with how the segment played out.
"We shake hands, then we put the mics down; off mic he started talking so much s**t. If you could read his lips, I'm legitimately taken aback by it. He was using so many swear words just cussing me out. The only person I had ever head-butted as hard was William Regal in NXT. I'll tell you this much, nobody can accuse me of taking it easy on the boss," he said. "Then the blood came, and the Superkick. Even the thing where he stands back up and looks at me and has blood after the headbutt and just the blood; he's seething and tries coming at me, the whole thing was just so surreal."
The segment happened during the buildup to Owens' match with Shane McMahon in the main event of the Hell In A Cell pay-per-view. Owens said he enjoyed working with Shane McMahon from the moment he was inserted into his feud with AJ Styles. He said McMahon added a new flavor to the rivalry that helped it get over, and then it led to a high-profile spot for him at Hell In A Cell.
"It was a real blast. The whole time, from the moment he got involved with the AJ Styles angle," Owens said. "From the moment our [Jericho] angle ended at Payback, and then the rematch, then the three-way match that happened on SmackDown Live; I was working with AJ Styles all summer. I'm honest enough to say that I don't believe we hit it out of the park with that angle, but then Shane McMahon got involved and added a different element to it... But every moment from that point on, Shane, and Vince McMahon getting involved, it's as big as it gets. The following week I did something similar with Shane McMahon, which lead to our Hell in a Cell match, that big shocking turn there with Sami Zayn, that almost drove him insane."
Owens won the match at Hell In A Cell in controversial fashion when Zayn saved him from a McMahon elbow drop from the top of the cell. Zayn explained how much work went into pulling off the swerve and he admitted he was nervous about the spot because of the real-life risk that was involved.
"There's three lives essentially on the line; there's Shane McMahon, obviously, then there's Kevin Owens, because if I don't get him off in time, and then there's me because if I ruin it, I'm dead," Zayn said. "To me, this is an elite, Hollywood-level stunt and they're telling me to just pull him off. I was like, "Hang on, hang on, when am I supposed to pull him off?' They said that I would see Kevin Owens foot come off. I said, wait, I only have 1.8 seconds to go from invisible to grabbing him. He is lifeless; you don't understand the margin of error for this. I had knots in my stomach all day. Not only that, but the one or two time that I tried pulling him off the table throughout the day, I slid right off."
Zayn stressed that there wasn't much time to prepare for the spot, so he took it very seriously. McMahon actually came pretty close to hitting Owens. In the end, Zayn pulled it off perfectly and cemented his heel turn.
"Kevin Owens' life is on the line. If you watched it in slow motion, Shane McMahon, at that velocity, maybe comes three feet away from Kevin Owens' head, it was crazy how close it was," Zayn said. "It's a crazy stunt, but if this was in Hollywood, it would be rehearsed ad-nauseam; there would also be crash bags, but for us, it was like, 'Well, when you see his foot...' I'm like, 'Lives are on the line.' I was on the ground about to pull him off, and I looked at Shane thinking, I can't believe he is about to do this. He is so high in the air. I just couldn't believe it."
If you use any of the quotes that appear in this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to WrestlingINC for the transcription.
Source: Talk Is Jericho
Peter Bahi contributed to this article.