Kevin Owens Says He Dealt Directly With Vince McMahon On His WWE Contract Extension
During the latest episode of Out of Character with Ryan Satin, WWE superstar Kevin Owens joined the show to talk about his decision to resign with the WWE to a multi-year deal this past December.
The former WWE Universal Champion revealed how long before the news came out that he had signed the contract and revealed that he dealt directly with Vince McMahon when resigning with the company.
"A couple weeks maybe, a few weeks," Owens said. "WWE really didn't let me think about it much in terms of they made it clear to me they wanted me to stay. I dealt with Vince directly and he made it clear he wanted me to stay and we made an agreement right then and there. I'm a big believer in my career is going to go the way it goes and I'm going to do my best with it. I'm there now for a couple more years and I'm going to do my best to get opportunities and knock them out of the park and reap the benefits.
"As I've documented before, there's ups and downs to this thing, to WWE, to wrestling, to the industry. I feel like I'm on a really big upswing right now and I'm really enjoying myself a lot lately so that's great and hopefully it keeps going that way. If it eventually stops feeling that way and I'm on the downswing, then it's up to me to try to find a way back up. I've always taken that outlook and I'm really having a great time these days."
As far as what's in store for Kevin Owens at this year's WrestleMania, it's been heavily rumored that Stone Cold Steve Austin would be coming out of retirement after 19 years away from the ring to face Owens in a Stunner vs. Stunner match in Dallas.
Continuing to talk about his career and working his way to get to WWE, Kevin Owens told a story about refereeing a match between former ROH World Champion PCO and... a bear.
"I was actually a referee early in my career for a man vs. bear match," Owens said. "PCO, who people watching this will probably know, wrestled a bear once and he asked me to be the referee so that if things went awry, I would be there to help him. Not against the bear, if things go wrong with the bear we're all screwed. What he meant was what if the bear gets spooked and we don't know what to do and his trainer needs to bring him away because we need to save this show.
"Which is exactly what happened, the bear wouldn't take part in it which I completely understand and now looking back that's not something that ever should've happened. Once the bear decided that he wasn't going to be a part of it, the only thing we could do was have the referee tell PCO that the match was thrown out and then have PCO get upset and pull out a chair and assault the referee like any sensible human would. So that's what we did to give the people their money's worth, I don't get anywhere near the bear because he wouldn't get anywhere near the ring. Wise decision on his part."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Out of Character with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.