Kevin Owens Reveals Steve Austin’s Reaction To Him Using The Stunner

WWE SmackDown star Kevin Owens has revealed Stone Cold Steve Austin’s reaction to him using the Stunner as a finishing move.

Owens started using the Stunner in 2019 after the Pop-Up Powerbomb had been his primary finisher prior to that.

Speaking with Fightful, Kevin Owens said:

“I asked Austin if I could do it, first and foremost. I had been thinking about it for a while, this was back in 2016-17, and I felt like everybody was doing a powerbomb of some sort, just short of doing pop-up powerbombs. I’m pretty sure I saw some guys do it too. That’s a whole other thing of people take from other people and when we’re all on the same show and same team, that’s a whole other issue. I was seeing all these people doing powerbombs and I want to stand out with something different. At the same time, I wanted to do something that people can be excited about. I got this feeling of ‘maybe I can use the Stunner.’ It’s been used throughout the years by a lot of people, but it wasn’t a finishing move anymore. I thought, ‘Maybe if I get advice from Stone Cold himself, I can figure out how to make it a finishing move again.’ I went to him, asked him if I was okay with him using it and he was very happy to say yes. He was wondering when someone would come ask him. He gave me the green light, I took it through the proper channels and it was deemed that it wasn’t the right time for it, but eventually it became the right time and here we are now. I’m doing my best to keep it…I call it the Stunner because I’m never going to change its name, it wouldn’t feel right. I’m doing my best to do right by it. That’s also a polarizing issue. Some people love it, some people really don’t like that I do it. Those people can take their opinions elsewhere. Steve Austin said I can do it and I’m not gonna stop anytime soon.”

Speaking about why he dropped the Steenaliser, he said:

“I retired that one myself, actually. I had a couple of close calls where, everyone I gave it to was fine, but I felt like it was too close where maybe it wouldn’t have been fine. I would be upfront with everybody I was going to give that move to like, ‘it’s kinda crazy, I wouldn’t take it. If you don’t want to take it, tell me.’ I never had anyone say no. It was literally fine every time, but I felt like a couple of times it was a close call and it’s just not worth it in the end, so I retired it myself. It obviously isn’t something I would do in WWE because we used to do this four-five times a week, every week, and it’s not a move you want to give people that work that hard and put their bodies through that much punishment on a daily basis.”

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