Has anyone noticed something different with Kevin Owens lately? Well, there’s the obvious fact that he’s possibly angrier than he’s ever been in a storyline on account of how he believes Shane McMahon screwed him out of two United States Championship matches. Less obvious than that is how KO appears to have dropped his “Face of America” gimmick with zero fanfare. It was, as it always is with Owens, a great showcase for his ability as one of WWE’s best pure heels, but as he explained in a recent interview, it’s something he wants to move away from for the moment.
Speaking to the Argus Leader, Owens said that the reason he’s dropped the “Face of America” references as of late is the fact that SmackDown Live has too many people playing the evil foreigner/anti-American heel. At the time he, as a Canadian, started ironically calling himself the “Face of America,” he was the only one of note on the blue brand to drop regular references to the United States. And while this gimmick has KO patronizing, instead of outright insulting American audiences as a standard foreign heel, he feels that he’s better served at the moment working as himself, as the Kevin Owens fans have mostly known since he debuted on the main roster in 2015.
RELATED: FACTS ABOUT KEVIN OWENS' TIME IN WWE
“Whether it’s Jinder Mahal or Rusev, I don’t like being like other people,” said Owens. “When I started the Face of America, there was nobody on SmackDown doing that kind of stuff, and now there’s too many of us.”
In addition to talking about his quiet change in gimmick, Owens also discussed several other WWE-related topics, including his insights on WWE’s promo-scripting process; according to Owens, people like himself who have the ability to improvise get “more leeway of how to speak and what to say” during their promos. He also talked about the possibility of a future face turn, noting that WWE hasn’t made any such plans to the best of his knowledge, but adding that in his mind, he can “make anything work,” including becoming a crowd favorite for the first time in his WWE career.
Regardless of how he presents himself, Kevin Owens is, without a doubt, one of the finest promo men WWE has at the moment, and to be honest, we didn’t even notice that he was no longer dropping “Face of America” references. That’s a testament to how good he is in cutting promos people actually want to listen to. As for the possibility of a face turn, we’d say it’s still too early to turn him into a good guy, but we do agree with what he said in his interview – he’s good enough to make people boo him, and since many fans still cheer him anyway despite his villainous alignment, he has the potential to be a top-notch baby face when the time comes to turn him.