Kevin Owens, Roman Reigns, the PWI 500 and More from the Backlash Mailbag

On Monday's Raw, Kevin Owens won the WWE Universal Championship, making Triple H a 15-time world champion.

Kevin on Earth

Hopefully Owens will be able to stay healthy as a world champion, as there is a lot of potential here. If Triple H and The Authority stay out of his way, Owens can be a dominant, tough-guy world champion in the mold of a Mark Henry, whose Hall of Pain run helped bolster SmackDown ratings to record numbers on Syfy, per James Caldwell of PWTorch.

Owens is a strong wrestler who can cut great promos on a weekly basis, and he is the last person who needs any bells or whistles. The same could be argued about Seth Rollins, whose run as a pampered champion in 2015 coincided with record-low ratings, according to Showbuzz Daily (h/t Marc Middleton of Wrestling Inc.).

I expect Owens to be given at least three months with the Universal Championship. With a vacant title at stake and Triple H's involvement, Owens' win felt more like the dawning of a new era than that of Finn Balor. The latter came out of nowhere to win the Universal Championship, but Owens has established a connection with the WWE audience for years and now has the top heel in the promotion in his pocket.

Roman Rage

The Pro Wrestling Illustrated 500 may be an underground wrestling favorite, but the publication has never been shy about rewarding WWE talent. PWI's announcement of Reigns as the best in the world marks the sixth straight year a WWE Superstar has topped the list. In fact, WWE Superstars have been ranked No. 1 on this list in nine of the past 10 years.

Reigns deserves to be No. 1. Even through his losing ways since coming back from suspension, nobody receives a more realistic reaction than Reigns. Some fans cheer Reigns. More of them boo him. But none of it is pandering; it's real emotion that fulfills every member of the live audience.

Reigns just brings a different energy to WWE arenas, and throughout the fiscal year used to evaluate talent, no wrestler in the world was more dominant than "The Guy."

As much as Reigns deserves to top this list in 2016, PWI has to be loving the social media attention it is receiving from naming Reigns "The (Internet) Guy." The so-called backlash from Reigns' detractors is just as big of a story as Reigns being named the best in the world. Everybody wins.

WWE Aims to Tease

WWE made it clear that Big Cass and Roman Reigns have a future program in store. The two teased physicality multiple times during the Fatal 4-Way on Raw and ended up having limited contact.

Every time the two stared down, it felt like it was being done for footage of a video package we'll see in April. WWE essentially booked two matches for WrestleMania 33 coming out of its main event for Raw. In addition to Reigns vs. Big Cass, I can see Seth Rollins and Triple H facing off if WWE is able to demonstrate patience.

After Triple H's attack on Rollins, it's hard to imagine a scenario where WWE holds off on a future one-on-one match until WrestleMania, but that's the only stage big enough for such a match. I also see a high-profile Women's Championship match between Bayley and Sasha Banks, as the two look to replicate the magic they still seem to be chasing from NXT Brooklyn one year ago. 

Alfred Konuwa is a Featured Columnist and on-air host for Bleacher Report and Forbes. Like him on Facebook.