Kevin Owens is the current Universal Champion, and while he frequently gets cheers from fans, all that recently changed when he turned on his best friend Chris Jericho. Now, he's back to being one of the most hated heels in WWE, but it turns out that Owens is far more interested in receiving a very different sort of reaction from wrestling fans.
Talking on the latest episode of The Steve Austin Show, Owens - who faces Goldberg at the Fastlane PPV - admitted that he would be perfectly fine with receiving a polarising response similar to that of John Cena and Roman Reigns.
"I've always said this... you know, you gotta get heat, you gotta get, you know... You gotta be a heel, you gotta be this, you gotta be that. But to me the optimum reaction is when you get a lot of people that like you, a lot of people that hate you, and then they meet in the middle. Like John (Cena) or Roman (Reigns) has these days, that's the reaction I aspire to get one day because I find that clash is so interesting."
You might think that would be the last thing any WWE Superstar would want, especially as getting booed when you're supposed to be cheers and vice versa must make it tough to play the role you've been given. Owens, however, sees things differently to that and went on explain why he hopes to divide fans the same way in future.
"They're competing with each other. They're engaged. Also because I feel, like I said, they're competing with the other people. They see this guy saying 'let's go Cena'... 'Hell no, Cena sucks,' you know what I mean? They create a competition within themselves and it makes for a very interesting time. Everybody is always engaged."
That a hard point to argue with and one which does make total sense. Owens has been exceeding expectations ever since his WWE debut, so chances are we can expect that to continue being the case over the next few years. With that in mind, the Universal Champion should have no trouble getting any reaction from fans he so desires!