Kevin Owens' IC Title Win Gets WWE WrestleMania 32 Direction Back on Track

Kevin Owens has been quite the curious case as of late in his rivalry with Dolph Ziggler. The two have traded wins in recent weeks on Raw with Ziggler emerging victorious in their last two in-ring encounters.

However, on the latest episode of Raw, Owens shocked the WWE Universe by clinching his second Intercontinental Championship. This occurred after Stephanie McMahon forced Dean Ambrose to put his title up for grabs in a Fatal 5-Way and Owens pinned Breeze.

It was confirmed via a backstage segment shortly thereafter that Owens and Ziggler will square off once again at Sunday's Fastlane, this time for the Intercontinental Championship. And it's imperative that Owens comes out on the winning end.

No Superstar has had a more meteoric rise in the past year than Owens. He arrived at NXT in December 2014, and in two months' time, he was NXT champion.

From there, he made his main roster debut by May, defeated John Cena in his first official match as a WWE Superstar and quickly captured the Intercontinental Championship. Within a matter of months, he had solidified himself as a star on the rise, but it didn't take long for WWE to squander his hot momentum.

Following his feud with Cena (and tapping out in clean fashion at Battleground 2015 for no apparent reason), he became just another guy on the roster—the worst thing a Superstar deemed to be special can possibly endure.

At a time when there is little star power on the roster and so many wrestlers are on the shelf due to injury, WWE needs strong lead heels. It had one in Seth Rollins before he got hurt, but the time is now for Owens to take his place as the biggest bad guy in the company.

Credit: WWE.com

It speaks volumes that WWE had to put the WWE World Heavyweight Championship on Triple H going into WrestleMania 32, meaning there were few other options at the Royal Rumble. Sheamus has been booked poorly, and Bray Wyatt is still trying to find his stride again. But there is hope yet for Owens.

As I discussed in an article several months back, Owens is the quintessential heel. But he will be limited in how far he can go as long as he is losing unnecessary matches without any explanation.

In retrospect, the back-to-back losses to Ziggler were logical, as it made him a worthy contender to the intercontinental title. The feud lacked meaning before Monday night, but it looks like this might have been the plan all along.

That said, Ziggler hasn't been able to maintain momentum for months. Granted, he's coming off two victories over Owens, but he is still a midcard-caliber competitor at best with no main event run in sight.

The bleached-blond Superstar definitely has all the tools necessary to get to the next level in WWE, but a lack of character development has prevented him from doing so. Until he starts to show signs of switching up his stagnant persona, there is no reason why he should be considered a bigger priority than Owens at the moment.

Coming off an extremely impressive rookie year in WWE, Owens is deserving of a top spot on the WrestleMania 32 card. As intercontinental champion, both he and the belt would benefit from being positioned higher up on the show.

His loss of the intercontinental title a few months back didn't hinder his ascent in the slightest; most fans assumed WWE had something else in store for him. Instead, he floundered for a few weeks before ultimately regaining the gold just this past week.

A match with Undertaker isn't completely out of the question as of now (assuming John Cena isn't cleared to compete in time), but the money match for Owens at WrestleMania seems to be with Sami Zayn. They rekindled their rivalry at the Royal Rumble, and the former friends still have unfinished business.

As for what will transpire on Sunday, Owens vs. Ziggler is a match we have seen several times over the last month, but fans should have a reason to care with a championship at stake. Furthermore, it would ensure Owens emerges from the rivalry victorious.

Beyond that, it's unknown what he will be a part of on the road to WrestleMania 32, but a win on Sunday would at least keep him on the right track going into The Show of Shows.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is a journalism major at Endicott College. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling, and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.

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