Kevin Owens Reflects on Stone Cold Match, Staying in WWE, John Cena and More

The difference the last year has made in the career of Kevin Owens can't be overstated.

The former WWE universal champion went from being on the brink of free agency at the end of 2021 to being one of the hottest acts in the entire company a year later.

After such a stellar year that including a WrestleMania main event and return to his roots, he'll be closing it out in grand fashion by teaming with the returning John Cena on the Dec. 30 edition of SmackDown to take on Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn in tag team action.

Of course, Owens has his fair share of history with Cena from the embryonic stages of his WWE main roster run, as he does with his Bloodline rivals. He's firing on all cylinders at the moment, and a win alongside Cena over Reigns and Zayn could get him one step closer to championship contention where he belongs.

Ahead of Friday's SmackDown, Owens caught up with Bleacher Report to discuss his milestone moments in 2022, adapting a new look outlook on wrestling, incorporating logic into the WWE product and more.

Check out the complete video of the interview on the next slide and read on for the highlights.

Owens started 2022 challenging for the WWE Championship in a pay-per-view main event that also involved Brock Lesnar on New Year's Day.

He went on to headline WrestleMania 38 with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in an impromptu match months later. He also took part in the first WarGames match on the main roster at Survivor Series and has been a big part of Raw's resurgence under Triple H.

All in all, it's been quite the incredible year for The Prizefighter, and teaming with foe-turned-friend John Cena on the final SmackDown of 2022 will be a fine way to cap it off.

Owens made an immediate impact upon arriving on the main roster in 2015 by targeting Cena and later beating him clean in his debut match on pay-per-view. The terrific trilogy of matches they had cemented him as a star from the get-go.

"I started my year out not really expecting any of that, for sure," Owens told B/R when reflecting on his 2022. "The match with Steve at WrestleMania, it doesn't really get any higher than that as far as career moments. Closing out the year teaming with John Cena is sort of full circle with the way I started my WWE career."

By competing on Friday's SmackDown, Cena will continue his streak of wrestling at least one televised singles match, a streak that has been intact since 2002. Their tag team affair against Reigns and Zayn feels like a massive attraction considering it will be Cena's first official match on the blue brand in almost exactly four years.

"It's just so great to get to experience all that stuff. I've been lucky and fortunate to be in the ring with people I've looked up to as I was coming up, and 99 percent of them have been amazing," Owens said. "It's been so great to be around them and getting to see people I looked up to being as great as they were on television, John's at the top of that list. From the moment I showed up, he was all about trying to help me be the best performer I could be and be as valuable to WWE as I could get. Getting to team with him as his matches become few and far between, I'm very grateful for that."

Owens has always been a multilayered, complex character, but perhaps one of his best attributes throughout his tenure in WWE is that he forgets nothing.

As a well-documented wrestling historian, he is well aware that acknowledging something that occurred in the past is so simple yet so satisfying for fans. He did recently with Seth Rollins by bringing up how and when they went their separate ways, as well as with Elias shortly beforehand.

WWE has been known to pretend certain storylines never happened, insulting the intelligence of viewers in the process. Unsurprisingly, there has been a lot less of that since Triple H took charge, and Owens has been able to bring that to light.

"I'm a big fan of logic," Owens said. "I've always tried to be logical during my time in WWE, maybe more logical than most people may want or choose to be. I do have quite the memory for things that happen in wrestling, I always had that kind of memory, and it's not just for me, either. Any chance I have to use that logic, it's always nice and I'm happy to do it."

He speculated that the change in the company's creative direction may have come with a change in mentality as far as this sort of stuff goes. He praised wrestling fans for having tremendous memories and wants them to feel rewarded for watching the product and knowing what they're watching matters.

"On WWE television sometimes, how can I put this... it's not always the most logical," Owens laughed. "So, when somebody tries to use common sense, it's almost jarring. But I'll be that guy if I need to be."

In the final few months of 2021, it very much appeared to fans that Owens was on his way out of WWE.

His booking seemed to indicate WWE was preparing for that possibility, not to mention that AEW was white-hot following the acquisitions of Bryan Danielson, CM Punk and Adam Cole.

In a shocking turn of events, it was revealed via Fightful Select in mid-December 2021 that Owens had re-signed with the company. Some questioned his decision at the time, but it obviously ended up being the best thing for his career.

"By Christmastime last year I knew I was sticking around, but before that, I really had no idea," Owens said. "I didn't even know at that time if I still wanted to be in the ring. Not because I didn't enjoy being in the ring anymore, but everything was kind of up in the air. I made the decision to stay and I'm certainly glad I made it because just this year I've experienced things I couldn't have imagined."

In our last exclusive chat with The Prizefighter in October 2020, he discussed never being content with where his career was come draft time each year. Two years later, he has an entirely new attitude about wrestling and wanting to enjoy everything that comes his way instead of being his own worst critic.

"As far as my mindset goes, it's definitely changed," he said. "I used to always want more and want bigger and worry about what's next, and I really don't do that anymore. I'm more worried about doing good stuff and stuff people enjoy, and I'm also thinking about enjoying everything I can enjoy. As I've said in interviews in the past, I missed out on moments I really should have enjoyed because I was always worried about what's next. I'm not going to do that anymore. I've had an incredible career I'm so lucky to have had."

He added that having childhood heroes and idols such as Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Triple H, Trish Stratus and Bret Hart at his disposal for whenever he needs advice or guidance has helped make him a better performer as well.

The idea of "Stone Cold" Steve Austin coming out of retirement for one more match, let alone against Kevin Owens, was unfathomable for almost two decades. Thankfully, the stars aligned in his home state of Texas at WrestleMania 38, and that dream became a reality.

Owens was without a WrestleMania match and took it upon himself to call out Austin for the event. It was less of a challenge for a match and more of an invitation for him to appear on "The KO Show" on The Grandest Stage of Them All.

He revealed to B/R that he was first informed about the prospect of the match happening as early as the Royal Rumble in late January and that he made sure to enjoy every second of the process.

"Vince McMahon told me what the plan was at the Royal Rumble," Owens said. "He sat me down in his office and told me what he was thinking. It's really funny because a few weeks before that, somebody on the creative staff had told me, 'Well, I can't tell you what the idea is, but you might be wrestling somebody you really wouldn't expect.' So, I immediately thought it had to be one of three people: John Cena, The Rock or Austin.

"In my head, the least likely one is Austin, but he was the one I wanted the most because he was my favorite," he continued. "Vince confirmed it was Steve and I was, 'Woah, man.' We had no idea what was going to happen honestly. All that I knew leading up to it was that we were going to be in the same ring and stuff's going to go down. We'll see when we get there what happens exactly. Leading up to it, getting to talk to everybody, it felt like it'd be something big and something good and it sure turned out to be the case."

Owens joked that was it was all downhill from there but in the best way possible, though he looks forward to the challenge of trying to top it.

Owens' goals and aspirations for 2023 tie into his new mindset: He simply wants to enjoy everything as it comes and not focus as much on the future, ensuring that he isn't worrying about factors he can't control.

That said, getting gold back in his grasp would be rather sweet seeing as how he hasn't had a title reign of any kind since 2017, when he was last United States champion. It may not be the world title, but he would definitely be deserving of it having experienced a surge in popularity since the summer.

With a WrestleMania main event against Stone Cold now on his resume, he isn't anxious to prove anything to anyone, including himself. Instead, he's perfectly content sitting back and letting life play itself out, not knowing for certain what exciting things the future could have in store for him.

"I really can't say I have anything on the list," Owens said in response to what he wants to accomplish in the new year. "Winning the tag titles or winning any title is great. I haven't had a title in a very long time. Everything I've gotten to do, it's very hard to turn around and go, 'I really wish I had done that.' I've done things I would've never imagined, let alone main-event WrestleMania with 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin."

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, has specialized in sports and entertainment writing since 2010. Visit his website, WrestleRant, and subscribe to his YouTube channel for more wrestling-related content.