Sami Zayn Must Resume Rivalry with Kevin Owens After WWE Money in the Bank 2016

The Money in the Bank ladder match will return at WWE Money in the Bank 2016 on June 19, and among the combatants will be Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. Having been at odds for months, the match should not mark the end of their ruthless rivalry but rather only the beginning.

Sami Zayn qualified for the matchup with a win over Sheamus on the May 23 edition of Raw. Later that same night, Kevin Owens knocked off AJ Styles in the main event to punch his ticket to the pay-per-view's titular contest.

Money in the Bank will be the forth consecutive event at which Zayn and Owens will be involved in the same match, and it surely won't be the last. They rekindled their rivalry at the Royal Rumble, when Zayn returned to eliminate Owens from the Battle Royal, and they have been at each other's throats ever since.

Although Owens is a strong candidate to capture the briefcase, that should not interrupt his program with Zayn. If anything, that could become the latest focus of their feud heading into the summer.

No rivalry has been hotter in the past few months than Zayn vs. Owens, and for WWE to cut it short after the upcoming event would be beyond asinine.

Credit: WWE.com

Perhaps the greatest aspect of the program is how much history they have together. Upon Owens' debut at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution in December 2014, he set his sights on Zayn and ambushed him immediately following his NXT Championship victory.

From there, they engaged in one of the most heated feuds in the history of the brand. Their in-ring encounters at Rival and Unstoppable ended via referee stoppage, with Owens walking away as NXT champion on both occasions.

Owens' betrayal of his former friend hasn't been the only element to the story, however. When Zayn legitimately injured his shoulder in the spring of 2015, Owens took credit for putting him on the shelf, adding more fuel to the fire when he eventually returned to the ring.

The former Ring of Honor standouts had various run-ins at the onset of 2016 at an NXT live event and in the Royal Rumble match, but it wasn't until Zayn resurfaced on Raw in March that their feud was officially back in full force.

In the months that followed, they went to war on pay-per-view in a ladder match, a Fatal 4-Way match and in singles competition, but the best has yet to come from Zayn and Owens.

If either guy won the Intercontinental Championship at Extreme Rules, that would have merely been a bonus. Gold isn't the central theme of the rivalry; their personal animosity for each other is.

Needless to say, the endgame should see Zayn finally get his big win over Owens after almost two years. The two-time Intercontinental champion bested him in their initial outing on the main roster at Payback, but a rematch is inevitable.

Although Battleground is the last pay-per-view before SummerSlam, the biggest blockbuster of the summer would be a more fitting stage to blow off Zayn vs. Owens for the time being. Then again, they could always clash at Battleground and face off in a stipulation rematch of some sort at SummerSlam.

Either way, it is imperative they remain on the same show following the pending WWE draft. Shipping one off to SmackDown and keeping the other on Raw would bring the electric momentum of their feud to a screeching halt.

As WWE said, Zayn and Owens are destined to fight forever. Regardless of whether either one becomes Mr. Money in the Bank, Zayn must resume his rivalry with his longtime adversary coming out of the event so it can receive the proper payoff it deserves.

Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is a Digital 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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