Kevin Owens Makes Surprise WWE Return, Wins Title Contendership

Kevin Owens returned to beat Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, and Gunther to become number one contender to the WWE Championship at SummerSlam Sunday.

Zayn had been scheduled to face Balor in a singles match. But before the match could get underway, Nick Aldis announced that he would be adding a new participant in the match, having been reinstated as "WWE SmackDown" General Manager. Gunther made his entrance, shaking the hand of Aldis, to cement that he was that new participant.

As Gunther got into the ring, Aldis announced that he would be adding another participant to make it a four-way. The crowd erupted as that fourth participant wound up being the returning Owens. 

Owens cleared the ring of Gunther and Balor before facing down Zayn and hugging it out. Only after that moment did Owens and Zayn begin their striking exchange, with Owens getting the better and following up with a senton from the top rope down to his three opponents on the outside. 

He followed up with a Swanton bomb onto Gunther in the ring, but Gunther eventually seized control and began to rally against his opponents. Owens eventually returned to the fray and sought to land another Swanton onto Zayn, but Zayn got his knees up and appeared to injure the neck of Owens.

The referee prevented Zayn from following up and that allowed Gunther to cinch in the sleeper on Zayn, but Balor landed Coup de Grace onto Zayn and Gunther, making the cover on the former but only for a two-count. 

Owens returned and delivered stunners to Gunther and Balor, but Zayn reversed the stunner into a blue thunderbomb for another near-fall. Zayn looked to follow that up with Helluva kick, getting superkicked and then receiving a stunner for Owens to score the winning pinfall.