Kevin Owens' Many Ongoing Feuds Add Value as a Top Heel

At the end of a teaser vignette in December, the current NXT champion introduced himself by saying "my name is Kevin Owens, and I will fight anyone and everyone."

He wasn't lying.

As I mentioned on the PodNasty Wrestling Podcast, Owens has five feuds to account for. No heel is being booked as more of a public enemy than Owens, who has two injured adversaries (not counting an unconfirmed yet strongly implied injury to Hideo Itami) and three simultaneous feuds. 

One of the many positives of WWE's Attitude Era was the seamless overlapping of storylines. A midcarder could feud with a top guy while also battling his peers.

Such practices are rare in today's more static, formulaic storylines where each WWE Superstar participates in one feud at a time. But Owens is different. WWE is using him as its traveling agitator, stepping on every toe and ruffling every feather in sight.

Regardless of the outcome of Owens' match against Cena at Elimination Chamber, he should be widely considered as not only a top heel, but the top heel in all of WWE programming.

Despite being the WWE world heavyweight champion, Seth Rollins is booked as a cowardly heel who needs The Authority to remain champion. While Owens beat Sami Zayn to a pulp in two separate NXT Championship matches, Rollins doesn't have an honest title defense to his name. His feuds don't seem special as much as they seem like placeholders before Brock Lesnar is ready to eat again.

Owens, on the other hand, is a migrant loner who just wants to hurt people.

It's only natural that he is involved in a showdown against WWE's top star. Even though this is a match pitting developmental champion against midcard champion with neither title on the line, it feels like the main event.

There's a built-in feel that a changing of the guard will take place if the portly, physical brawler triumphs over the All-American superhero. Even if Owens doesn't beat Cena, we cannot ignore his presence.

Owens has had such a strong impact in such a short amount of time on the main roster that entering the Money in the Bank Ladder Match just makes sense. The event is just over two weeks away, and without Owens a potentially weak field would have a glaring void.

He is slowly being entrenched throughout WWE programming with the litany of fires he continues to start. The longer these fires burn, the hotter Owens becomes.

Alfred Konuwa is a featured columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @ThisIsNasty and subscribe to his weekly wrestling podcast.