Kevin Owens On Why No WWE Stars Sent Videos For ROH Final Battle

While wrestlers from AEW and Impact Wrestling sent in videos thanking Ring of Honor at ROH Final Battle earlier this month, no video was sent in from anyone working for WWE, despite the promotion featuring several past ROH stars. According to WWE star Kevin Owens, the explanation is easy. Speaking with Pat Laprade on the French Canadian podcast Les anti-pods de la lutte, Owens claimed that ROH never approached any wrestlers or WWE about sending in videos.

"The answer is quite simple: Ring of Honor didn't ask any wrestlers from WWE to do that, nor contacted anyone at WWE," Owens said. "I knew it was going to be their last show, but I didn't think to send a video so they could play it at the show. I've watched it. I was at a WWE show, and I was watching it on my phone, so it was not something I simply ignored. I've read some people on the Internet saying that probably WWE didn't let us do it, but that's incorrect. It's just ROH who didn't ask us, and I bet that if they had, we could have done it, but that wasn't the case."

Under his real name Kevin Steen, Kevin Owens wrestled in Ring of Honor from 2007 to 2014, winning the ROH World Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championships with El Generico (Sami Zayn) once each. While he believes he likely would've made it to WWE anyway, Kevin Owens noted he had many good times with ROH and was happy to be a part of the promotion.

"It's funny cause I often ask myself that same question," Owens said. "Of course, it gave me a very important platform in the United States. But at the end of the day, William Regal saw me at a PWG show. And even before I started full time with ROH in 2007, I had a good name on the indies because of PWG. So sometimes I wonder if things would have not become what they became with ROH, if I would have made it to WWE anyway. Maybe, maybe not, I don't know. But at the same time, there was a point in my career where I thought ROH would be where I would spend my whole career.

"Even if my goal was always to go with WWE, there's was a point in my life where I had my son and my wife, and I was thinking that travelling so much like I would have had to do in WWE was not the best thing for me, so I was thinking that the more time I can make a living working ROH, that's what I would do. However, with time, my priorities changed a little, my family's priorities changed a little, and that's when WWE became my goal again. So ROH was a big influence and a huge part of my career, but I often wonder if ROH would have not been part of my career, if I would have made it to WWE anyway. A huge part of me thinks so. That said, I have plenty of good and fun memories with ROH, and I'm very happy to have been apart of ROH for all those years."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Les anti-pods de la lutte and provide an h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription