Daniel Bryan's Injury Is a Cautionary Tale for Pushing Kevin Owens

Kevin Owens and Daniel Bryan are cut from the same cloth, which has proven to be both a gift and a curse for WWE.

As WWE prepares for WrestleMania season, Owens has emerged as a surprise favorite to score an elusive match against Brock Lesnar. Former WWE writer Court Bauer addressed these claims on a recent episode of MLW Radio (h/t WrestlingInc.com). Owens himself publicly stated, on the Like Father, Like Son podcast, he'd like to see if he could hang with the beast. WWE would not be wise to pull the trigger on this potential feud.

Every feud with Lesnar is extremely meaningful. Over the last few years, Lesnar has become a prominent attraction of WWE programming with his losses being just as rare as his appearances. Nobody beats Lesnar unless or she matters.

At this point, WWE should be positioning Lesnar to lose to a fresh, young star at WrestleMania 32. Roman Reigns, who is being positioned as WWE's next top star, would be a fine choice. Owens—a 15-year veteran—is not that guy, and with injuries piling up, WWE aught to be very careful with its investment in the Intercontinental champion.

Like Bryan, Owens has a prolific independent wrestling background that will come close to eclipsing his WWE career. But, like Bryan, his many years on the independent circuit curtailed his proverbial bump card, making potential injury even more of a concern.

In 2014, during his rookie year in WWE, Owens underwent a partial meniscectomy for a knee injury. Owens' years of physical, hardcore matches on the independent scene accelerated his wear and tear, and if this is the most significant procedure he has during his WWE stint, he'll be extremely lucky.

Cesaro and Seth Rollins, who are better-conditioned athletes than Owens with a similar background, are currently out with long-term injuries. As is Daniel Bryan, whose career is currently in limbo as he battles  serious head and neck injuries.  

For all the talk of Roman Reigns being "forced down the throats" of fans, WWE has been very liberal in signing and pushing wrestlers who built their careers through independent wrestling. WWE once avoided these guys like the plague, but as the promotion heads toward a new regime led by Triple H and Stephanie McMahon, indy stars have found recent success. Unfortunately, many of these success stories have been met with heartbreak.

Owens is the current Intercontinental champion, Rollins was WWE World Heavyweight champion for seven months, Cesaro won the inaugural Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 30 and Daniel Bryan captured the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at that same show.

Since then, just about all of them have dropped like mixtapes on Thanksgiving.

The fact that Owens, the portly fellow with questionable knees, is one of the last men standing from the indy alumni should scare WWE to death.

If WWE were to give Owens such a monumental win, only for his career to be compromised by injury, it would continue to set the company back as its transitional roster struggles to find its footing. In a perfect world, Owens stays healthy and becomes a lynchpin in WWE's otherwise murky future.

But realistically, there are too many red flags that suggest this will not be the case.

Alfred Konuwa is a featured columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report. LIKE him on Facebook, and subscribe to his weekly wrestling podcast.

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