A Kevin Owens Win over John Cena Would Mark Significant Change in WWE Booking

Kevin Owens' victory over John Cena last month seemed to signal a changing of the guard. It was one of those rare instances where an up-and-comer beat a top star in a clean, competitive match.

But as I mentioned in the PodNasty Wrestling Podcast, Cena losing to a rising star is nothing new. Cena has spent much of his career losing to the Internet Wrestling Community's flavor of the month, whether it's CM Punk, Dolph Ziggler or Daniel Bryan. 

But a typical Cena feud involves him exchanging wins and losses with an opponent. In fact, ahead of his rematch against Owens, the WWE Stats & Info Twitter account released this statistic:

"

If John Cena loses tonight, it'd be his first time losing 1-on-1 matches at two straight major WWE events since TLC 2013/Royal Rumble 2014.

— WWE Stats & Info (@WWEStats) June 14, 2015"

Cena losing clean to Owens already feels like the dawning of a new era, but if he loses to the WWE rookie in two consecutive pay-per-views, it's uncharted territory.

WWE's even-steven booking is not exclusive to Cena. Few WWE Superstars are exempt from dominant winning streaks on pay-per-view. Recent feuds that pit Dolph Ziggler against Sheamus, Randy Orton against Seth Rollins and Rusev against Cena followed this pattern.

Brock Lesnar was one of the privileged few who was, and the result was arguably the most dominant world championship run of the modern era. 

If WWE wanted to change its basic tit-for-tat booking philosophy, now would be the time to do so. In the suit-and-tie world of corporate wrestling, Owens represents counterculture.

It's not every day that a chubby WWE Superstar with a long history on the independent wrestling circuit is a fixture in the main event.

Prior to his match against Cena at Elimination Chamber, I argued that Owens didn't need a victory over Cena due to the head of steam he built up to that point. But after a shocking win, Owens needs a second victory over Cena more than he ever needed the first.

Should he just follow up a shocking win with a loss, he'll go from uncharted territory to being lumped into a category with several WWE Superstars. Following his rematch against Cena, Owens will either be a WWE Superstar to watch, or another hungry upstart who made a minor dent in the Cena stratosphere.

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.

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