What's Next for Kevin Owens After Failing to Make WWE Survivor Series Team?

Kevin Owens will rake his claws across WWE Survivor Series despite not making Team SmackDown.

He is too hot a commodity right now, too big a name for the brand to not make an impact on the Nov. 19 pay-per-view. It just won't be as part of the official card. Instead, Owens is poised to be a party-crasher with bad intentions.

KO had a shot to join Shane McMahon, Bobby Roode and Randy Orton on SmackDown's Survivor Series team. A win over Shinsuke Nakamura on Tuesday night would have earned him that coveted berth.

But Nakamura prevailed, fighting off a distraction from Sami Zayn and knocking Owens on his back to clear the way for a victory.

Now Nakamura is set to battle for the blue brand. The team's final spot will go to the winner of AJ Styles and Rusev next week. That will leave Owens out in the cold. 

He won't be there alone, though. Zayn, who recently ended their blood feud by joining forces with The Prizefighter, didn't make the Survivor Series cut, either.

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And those two allies have been scheming, as we saw on Tuesday night when they envisioned a day when SmackDown would become The Sami and Kevin Show. 

That bit of foreshadowing, plus the prominence of both men, suggests they will play spoilers at Survivor Series.

When Team Raw and Team SmackDown collide at the PPV, those two heels won't have brand loyalty on their minds. They will be looking to cause havoc and to punish McMahon.

After all, the commissioner ignoring Zayn is what initiated his heel turn. And when Team Blue charged into Raw last week, Zayn didn't attend the invasion, explaining he didn't work for tyrants:

The safe bet is that Owens and Zayn will sabotage Survivor Series somehow. Perhaps they beat up one of the guys on the team. Maybe they leap into the fray at the last minute and betray the blue brand.

Either way, Owens is assured a big moment at Survivor Series.

He will continue to battle authority figures. And if he keeps on turning WWE's big events on their heads as he's sure to do on Nov. 19, a showdown with Triple H will likely follow.

The Game was the one who ambushed Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins last August to allow Owens to steal the Universal Championship. 

That's a story WWE has yet to follow up on. It waits to be tapped into. 

Should Owens grow into more of a disruptive force, Triple H stepping in to stop him makes plenty of sense. The WWE executive could be disappointed that he helped create this monster and feel guilty enough to put his body on the line to end him. And Triple H vs. Owens at WrestleMania 34 has quite the ring to it.

For now, though, KO and Zayn will be content to put a monkey wrench into the Survivor Series machine.