At Saturday Night's Main Event, Cody Rhodes retained the Undisputed WWE Championship in a match with Kevin Owens. That ended when the American Nightmare jit KO with a Cross Rhodes on a steel chair the heel had brought into the ring moments earlier.
Incensed, Owens later returned and hit Rhodes with a package piledriver that, storyline-wise, has left him on WWE's injured list.
WWE held a special event at Netflix's headquarters yesterday to hype up RAW's move to the streaming platform next month. While Owens wasn't invited, he did show up with the winged eagle WWE Championship he took from Rhodes on Saturday.
After declaring himself the "true, rightful" WWE Champion, KO was ushered away by security; he appears to be going all-in on this gimmick and it's one we'd imagine will only earn the heel more fans.
It's unclear how WWE plans to conclude this storyline but Rhodes picking up a third victory over Owens would do KO no favours (unless it's true that he intends to leave the company once his current deal is up; in that case, it won't really matter).
Owens becoming WWE Champion is something many fans want and, in a recent interview with Mail Online, he opened up on his relationship with Randy Orton...who the Prizefighter also recently sidelined with a piledriver.
"The nature of professional wrestling is that we end up on opposite sides of the ring and once in a while we will team. As far as Randy goes, there is no-one in WWE that I respect as much I respect Randy. That is not a knock on anyone else, that is just a credit to how much I respect Randy Orton."
"On a professional level, but also a personal level, he will willingly talk about the mistakes he has made when he was younger and first starting out, because he wants to be an example of what to do and what not to do. He is very open about it and I respect him so much. I have seen how much he has changed even in the time I have known him. All the credit for that goes to his family, he gives it to his wife and kids. He is just a real positive influence in our locker room. When he wasn't here, you could feel it. When Randy Orton is around, people are on their toes more because they want Randy to respect them. Randy's respect is worth a lot."
"To have gotten the chance to work with him as a tag team - if it was up to me none of what has happened the last few months would have happened - I would still be teaming with Randy on TV together and going after the tag team titles. That's what I wish was happening, obviously that is not how things have turned out. It does not change how much I respect Randy and how grateful I am for the role he has played in my career having been around him."
"I think it is pretty public how he recently signed a new contract so he is going to be around for a good while. He is someone we need for the NXT guys coming up to have an example to look to. There are plenty of us right, you want examples of who to look up to, The New Day, Randy, there are so many of our women, there's a lot. But at the top of the list is Randy Orton."
Check out Owens' Netflix invasion along with more highlights from the Netflix event in the X posts below.