WWE Universal champion Kevin Owens recently spoke with The Mirror to promote WWE Hell in a Cell, and below are some interview highlights:
On his relationship with Chris Jericho:
“Chris Jericho was always someone I looked up to. I was a WWE fan growing up and I remember his debut. Back in the day, Raw would air at midnight on TSM in Canada and I would stay up way past my bedtime, considering I had school the next day, to watch it. I remember seeing Chris’ debut, which at that point on the show was probably at about 1am at my house, but that didn’t stop me from losing my mind really because I was so excited to see him come to WWE. So to now be able to share the ring with him and get to do some pretty entertaining stuff on Raw on a weekly basis is pretty special. It’s somebody I’ve watched growing up and now we get to do that together. It puts things into perspective and it’s pretty cool. When you work with somebody like that. it’s hard to put a finger on exactly what you have learned, but I’m definitely learning from him. I don’t want to be arrogant and say he might be learning from me but what makes you an elite performer in our industry is that you never stop learning so I’m sure he is, you know?”
On winning the Universal title:
“It was the culmination of 21 years of hard work. I’m 32 now and was 11-years-old when I first watched WWE. When I started wrestling for WWE for a living, my goal was to become world champion, just as everybody’s goal is in this industry basically. I’ve heard some people talk negatively about Triple H helping me win the title, but that actually made it more special to me, because without Triple H I wouldn’t be here. He made the call to hire me and he has been a pretty big supporter of mine since I first got here. For him to literally hand me the title, for me that just added to the moment.”
Nick was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of 18, when he decided to pack his flack jacket and move to New York City.
