Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn Need Fresh Feuds Heading Toward WWE SummerSlam 2016

The WWE draft created possibility. If one wrestler ended up on a different roster than his sworn enemy and rival, both characters could grow past each other—to evolve in new directions and explore different emotional landscapes.

Kevin Owens should have been drafted to SmackDown, which needs high-level heels to take on Dean Ambrose, Randy Orton, John Cena, Dolph Ziggler and Apollo Crews.

Instead, Owens is still on Raw—and so is his archrival, Sami Zayn. And the best thing for both men to do, especially after Battleground, is to stop fighting one another.

It feels like a reasonable yet ungrateful thing to want—like being fed lobster every evening and then complaining about the monotony. But even the best feuds, given enough time and repetition, get stale.

First, there’s no safe, reasonable way for them to top their previous encounter. Their match at Battleground had unmatched, emotional intensity—wonderful storytelling that was complemented by high-powered action. And since they can’t tell a better story, the only way to top their previous match would be to do so physically—to add a stipulation like a ladder or steel cage.

Matches like those, however, take years off a wrestler’s career. And at a time when so many WWE wrestlers are on the bench, coming off the bench or putting themselves on the bench (see Big E’s botched spear through the ropes at Battleground), this is not the time to be hotdogging and taking uncalculated risks.

Owens and Zayn don’t need to top their Battleground encounter, and it would be terrifying and uncomfortable to watch them try.

Second, the Owens-Zayn rivalry traps both men in the indy pigeonhole that they should be escaping. The same thing that makes their chemistry engrossing is the same thing that limits them: They’ve been fighting and feuding for a long, long time. And the longer they stay in this feud, the more it becomes about what they used to be rather than where they’re headed.

To what extent is the average fan invested in their feud?

There are many casual WWE fans who watch neither the WWE Network nor NXT. In its most recent earnings report, WWE reported that there were 1.52 million paid subscribers to the network. Meanwhile, according to Alfred Konuwa of Forbes, Raw commands an average audience of over 3 million viewers per week. The entire spark to the Owens-Zayn WWE rivalry—that moment when Owens stabbed his best friend in the back at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution—is likely lost on many viewers.

WWE can educate the fans about the rivalry via video packages. Non-subscribers can watch the highlights on YouTube. But neither option is the same as having shared those moments at the time they happened. It’s time for Owens and Zayn to have feuds on Raw that originate on Raw so that any of those 3 million viewers can follow it from the beginning and emotionally invest.

There are a lot of feud options. For Owens, a feud with Roman Reigns would be a physical thrill to witness. So would a fight against Cesaro or Titus O’Neil. It would even be interesting if Owens renewed his feud with Finn Balor. The two of them had great chemistry at last year’s Beast in the East.

As for Zayn, the possibilities are equally endless. He could fight Seth Rollins. He could fight Rusev, who deserves bigger and better fights than he’s currently getting.

Sheamus, specifically, would be a great feud for Zayn. Styles make fights, and The Celtic Warrior’s brute physicality would complement Zayn’s nimble approach.

WWE knows to pull back; it hyped Battleground 2016 as Owens and Zayn’s “final battle,” and thus far, both competitors are adhering to that narrative.

In fact, one of the underrated high points of this week’s Raw was that Owens and Zayn didn’t interact with each other once. They competed in separate Fatal 4-Way matches for the No. 1 Contendership—Owens squared off against Cesaro, Balor and Rusev in the first match, and Zayn squared off against Reigns, Chris Jericho and Sheamus in the second.

WWE Creative now needs to continually enforce that separation. No singles matches. No tag matches. No commentating on each other’s matches. No attacking each other on the ramp.

Owens and Zayn are separated now, but for how long?

It will be increasingly difficult to maintain that separation as the months roll on; there are only so many major players on such a small roster. But WWE must resist the temptation to go back to the well, lest the well dry up.

This is not to say that Owens and Zayn should never fight again. Every Steamboat needs his Flair. Every Hart needs his Michaels. Every Austin needs his Rock. Every Bayley needs her Banks. The Owens-Zayn feud will never go away for good; Zayn alluded to their inseparability in his post-Battleground tweet:

And in an interview with WWE.com, Zayn made a telling statement:

"

We’ve been friends many times and enemies more times than I can count. It’s always one or the other. I don’t see how [a friendship] could be possible right now, but it wouldn’t be the first time or the last time. I think at the end of the day, when you look at the history between us, I think we’re destined to fight forever.

"

It’s true. The two of them are too entwined in their personal histories to ever stop fighting completely. And maybe by the time WrestleMania season rolls around, they’ll be able to reignite their animosity in a way that doesn’t seem contrived or repetitive.

For now, however, they’re both overdue to move forward.