Kevin Owens' WWE Year in Review: Full Breakdown and Grade for 2017

The year 2017 was a trying one professionally for Kevin Owens.

What began with him on top of the wrestling world—the WWE Universal champion and Superstar around whom Raw revolved—eventually descended into disappointment and a trip to SmackDown.

On the blue brand, he made an enemy of commissioner Shane McMahon, feuded with AJ Styles and finished the year as one of the centerpieces of the Tuesday night show.

The ups and downs both creatively and between the ropes hurt what should have been a banner year for The Prizefighter.

Did the hot end and the high-profile matches with Styles, McMahon and Chris Jericho help make up for the disappointment and fuel him to a solid overall grade?

How did his in-ring work and creative support grade out? Was 2017 a historically significant one for the man once affectionately known to SmackDown Live fans as The New Face of America?

Find out now with this year-in-review look at one of the most over stars in WWE.

In-Ring Work

Owens is one of the best workers on the WWE roster. He has been responsible for some of the most intense, emotional matches the company has produced since arriving on the main roster in 2015.

This year, though, he had several matches that failed to live up to lofty expectations, including a disappointing WrestleMania 33 bout against Chris Jericho that WWE chairman Vince McMahon himself was frustrated by, as seen in the WWE Network documentary WWE 365: Kevin Owens.

The Jericho match, in particular, was disappointing in that it was the culmination of a months-long program that captivated audiences and carried emotion not seen elsewhere on the card.

Jericho, the grizzled veteran who thought he had discovered a new best friend late in his career, was betrayed and heartbroken by Owen's shocking backstabbing.

Their big blowoff match on wrestling's grandest stage should have been an intense war. Instead, it was a wrestling match like every other one on the show. It lacked the emotion that had been such an integral part of the story to that point.

Perhaps that is what disappointed McMahon so much and left Owens feeling guilty in its wake.

When he made the jump to SmackDown Live, Owens had the opportunity to erase the dissatisfaction of the Jericho match via a series with AJ Styles over the United States Championship. Unfortunately, stipulations and the interjection of Shane McMahon late in the program led to subpar matches that were more about storyline advancement than the quality of the bouts themselves.

Even as the year progressed and the creative behind the matches excelled, the matches themselves suffered.

Why Owens, a Superstar so renowned for his in-ring prowess, was having matches that can best be described as underwhelming from month to month is a question never quite answered in 2017 but will hopefully be addressed as the new year approaches.

Grade: B-

Creative

For Owens, 2017 will be forever defined by two specific rivalries: his clash with friend-turned-foe Jericho and his clash with authority in the form of Shane McMahon.

The feud with Jericho started Owen's year off on the right foot. After months of establishing a quirky friendship with Y2J, the then-Universal champion struck out at the future Hall of Famer, taking exception to Jericho accepting a title defense against Goldberg on his behalf.

During a memorable angle on Valentine's Day, Owens betrayed Jericho and threw him face-first into a television. What should have been the jumping-off point to one of the hottest rivalries in the company, though, descended into mediocrity when they met in a basic wrestling match at WrestleMania 33 and never really regained the intensity or emotion that once was a trademark of the program.

After a series of matches with AJ Styles that saw them exchange the United States Championship in disappointing fashion, Owens engaged Shane McMahon in a program that began in August and stretched into October, where he battled the head honcho of SmackDown Live inside Hell in a Cell.

Before they could get there, though, Owens was involved in the most significant angle of his entire year when he headbutted, bloodied and left Vince McMahon lying in the center of the ring to close out a Las Vegas episode.

That moment solidified Owens as the lead heel on Tuesday nights despite the fact he wasn't the WWE champion. He was the villain who would take the reigns of the show and steer it through the remainder of the year.

He beat McMahon inside the unforgiving steel structure and at the conclusion of the match, reunited with former best friend Sami Zayn, who was tired of being held down by the overwhelming hand of justice that is the prodigal son.

At Survivor Series, disenfranchised by the idea they had been left off the show, Owens and Zayn attacked the boss and ultimately helped contribute to the blue brand losing the battle for brand supremacy.

One month later, with general manager Daniel Bryan seemingly sympathetic to their plight, Owens and Zayn capitalized on the dissension between commissioner and GM to defeat Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura and preserve their jobs.

As the year comes to an end, Owens and Zayn remain atop SmackDown and poised to make even greater contributions to the brand in 2018, thanks to strong booking that has them riding a wave of momentum neither man was really afforded earlier in their time with the brand.

Grade: A+

Historical Significance

There was nothing terribly historic about Owens' 2017.

He added two more reigns with the United States Championship to his resume and battled Goldberg in one of the WCW star's big pay-per-view main events. Beyond that, he had a steady and productive year that was in line with everything else he has accomplished under the WWE umbrella.

The big question is whether his ongoing storyline with Sami Zayn, Daniel Bryan and Shane McMahon leads to historic matches and moments in 2018.

The foundation has been laid. Now, it is up to WWE Creative to forge ahead and allow the longtime friends the opportunity to become bigger stars, and franchise players, for the SmackDown Live brand.

Grade: C-

Greatest Moment

When revisiting Owens' 2017, there are two moments that will remain etched in the minds of WWE fans: the shocking betrayal of Chris Jericho in February and the brutal assault on Vince McMahon in September.

Either of the angles is worthy of recognition as Owens' most memorable moment, but the one that made him a legitimate attraction and a star around whom the company could feel comfortable enough building shows was the beatdown of the Chairman of the Board.

The headbutt that bloodied Vinnie Mac and the subsequent frog splash took Owens to a level he had not experienced since his initial rivalry with John Cena.

It served as an announcement to the WWE Universe as a whole that he was a prime-time player on the SmackDown brand and not just the midcard performer he had been portrayed as earlier in the year.

From that moment, he catapulted into a program with Shane McMahon, forged an alliance with Sami Zayn and ensured he would be a factor at the top of the card for the remainder of 2017.

He was not always involved in main events but he was a main event, a Superstar whose interactions with top authority figures and babyfaces made him a must-see competitor.

The fact he shared television time with Vince, a distinction reserved only for the absolute top stars in the company, only enhanced what was a creatively rewarding year.

Best Match of 2017

To find Owens' finest match of 2017, one must go all the way back to January and the Royal Rumble.

On that night, in front of an enormous crowd in San Antonio, the Universal champion Owens defended against Roman Reigns in a No Disqualification match in which Chris Jericho was suspended above the squared circle in a shark cage.

A wild, chaotic and hard-hitting match that made the most of the stipulations, it saw Owens capitalize on the interference of Braun Strowman to successfully retain his title.

There will be others who point to one of the AJ Styles matches, maybe the United States Championship match against Jericho at Payback or, perhaps, the Hell in a Cell match against Shane McMahon, but none of those matches benefited from the atmosphere or chemistry Owens exhibited with Reigns.

A great championship match that is somewhat overshadowed by Styles' bout with John Cena on the same card, it was a bright spot from an in-ring perspective on Owens' otherwise nondescript year between the ropes.

Overall Grade

Thank goodness for the creative emphasis placed on Owens this year.

Had it not been for the strong storylines he was involved in, 2017 would have been a wildly disappointing year.

The in-ring work was not up to par with his previous years, but Owens remained a workhorse nonetheless. The strength of his work, though, was in interactions with Jericho and the McMahons, Sami Zayn and Daniel Bryan.

Those programs allowed him to showcase his skills and perform beyond the mat, keeping fans invested even when a lack of chemistry with certain Superstars did not allow for the quality of matches the audience expected.

When grading Owens, one must take into account all phases and though one stood out as seriously disappointing, his stature on shows and his contributions to high-profile rivalries earned him a solid grade that should give way to an even more spectacular one in the year to come.

Grade: B+