Kevin Owens recently appeared on Lilian Garcia’s podcast and here are the highlights:
On his Universal Title run: “My wife will tell me all the time, ‘You were the Universal Champion and I had never seen you more stressed.’ And now I look back and I think, ‘Oh yeah, you know, I probably would have done things differently when I was Universal Champion if it had been up to me.’ Some storylines might have been different, or I would have done different things, or I would have loved to have this match and stuff like that. But ultimately I was still the Universal Champion. And I don’t remember, I honestly don’t remember enjoying it. Which sucks.”
On getting advice from Shawn Michaels: “Besides my wife and my parents telling me this stuff, it comes from other people. Like, I had a talk with Shawn Michaels, who’s the reason I came into [wrestling]. And you know, Steve Austin, same thing. After Shawn Michaels for me it was Steve Austin, they were my two favorite wrestlers of all-time, no doubt. And now I have access to both these guys and we’ve spoken about wrestling and my career and various things, and they’ve both told me, I remember the Shawn Michaels conversation specifically because it was the night after Bobby Lashley took me out on TV and I was going away for surgery. I was gonna be gone for who knows how long in October. And I was telling him how I was looking forward to the time off. Not even to really heal my knees, but to heal my head. Not physically, but mentally because four years it had been non-stop and it was draining. And he told me, ‘Yeah, you know, I was kind of like you where I took everything home and I was always obsessed with this stuff. But trust me now, I’m telling you, I wish it wasn’t that way.’”
On trying to change his mindset and advice Vince McMahon gave him: “And so like during those five months off I really tried to assess how I’m going to come back and get to enjoy the moments I get. And I’m trying to do that every day, while at the same time still trying to contribute and find ways to create those moments. But living in the moment, and I mean it’s not just Shawn. I had a talk with Vince at some point around that period too, and he really said the same thing. I told Vince, “I’m never happy, but that’s because I always want more.’ And he said, ‘Well, it’s okay to always want more, but you’ve gotta find a way to be happy.’”
On his run with Chris Jericho: “That’s something that I didn’t enjoy anywhere as much as I should have. Yeah, I look back on so many moments Chris and I had, and man, those moments were incredible. But in that moment — now though, that’s the good thing though, I can look back and realize how great it was, and almost like enjoy it now — but in that moment I can tell you, I wasn’t enjoying it. I was worried about next week already. I remember one specific moment that we did together. It was in Toronto, it was the night after Survivor Series where we did this promo segment where we were blaming each other — or seemingly we were blaming each other for the loss the night before. And then we both blurted out, ‘It was Roman Reigns’ fault.’ That moment might be the only moment out of the whole thing with Chris where I actually stopped to enjoy it, because it was so great … even the Festival of Friendship, which was a moment people still talk about and I feel are gonna talk about for decades. It was incredible, but the moment, maybe five minutes after it happened, I was already talking to somebody about next week’s Raw. I just never let it sit.”
Listen to “Kevin Owens – Learning to Overcome Self-Doubt” on Spreaker.
