Kevin Owens Must Be Man to End Shane McMahon's Reign of Terror in WWE

For months, WWE fans have been searching for the right guy to end Shane McMahon's reign of terror.

Several candidates have come and gone. The Miz looked well-placed to make Shane's push a short-term thing at WrestleMania, but he was defeated. Then Roman Reigns emerged as a likely contender, but even he hasn't been able to make any sort of change when it comes to Shane's status on the card.

But that wait for WWE fans is finally over. Shane has a nemesis at long last, and one he can't seem to be able to get to grips with whatsoever: Kevin Owens.

Owens' babyface turn in the past couple of weeks came as a surprise, and the fact he's seemingly anointed himself as the guy to bring Shane down is also a twist, given how Owens has had more than one run as an authority figure. After all, remember how he won the Universal Championship all those years ago?

But this feels both different and the same to previous WWE storylines all at once. It's hard to see a McMahon feuding with a hugely popular babyface who uses the Stunner as his finishing move and not think back to the height of the Attitude Era. That link to Steve Austin and Vince McMahon is an obvious one, and it has gone over quite well with fans so far.

However, whether knowingly or not, WWE has booked itself into a position where only one outcome is possible from this feud. Fans may have said the same about Reigns and how if he didn't take Shane down then it would have hurt his standing in WWE.

But Reigns has the fanbase and booking to survive something like that. Owens, who has been out of the main event scene for way too long and had lost his direction as a performer up until a few weeks ago, hasn't.

He simply has to be the guy who takes Shane down. Because if he does, it could be the making of him as a major, major star in WWE.

One of the big questions the company has to ponder when it's booking this feud, though, is how long it lasts. SummerSlam is the obvious end destination for this rivalry, but in truth, the Austin-Vince dynamic back in the Attitude Era showed that this can be quite limitless in its length.

The most frustrating thing about Shane's booking for fans was that there was no clear foe for him to wage war with. Nobody who would sometimes get the upper hand on him and his cronies. But that's all changed now with the emergence of Owens as the hell-raising, rebellious babyface.

Furthermore, Owens' promos since this feud began a couple of weeks ago have made so much sense that the more he continues to frustrate Shane, the more this feud could run and run.

Ending it within the space of a month, with a match at SummerSlam, may well be difficult in terms of WWE trying to cram in all the booking aspects it wants to.

There are plenty of options moving forward for the rivalry, too. Owens could have a showdown with Drew McIntyre. Shane could stack the odds against him on SmackDown on a weekly basis with handicap matches and random beatdowns. But all of this becomes somewhat more interesting for WWE fans because this is now a genuine feud, not just Shane running amok on the blue brand's roster without anyone to call him out on it.

It could well be at SummerSlam, with a rushed feud and quick finish. It could be at the end of the year. If WWE thinks hard enough, this could run all the way to WrestleMania next year. But whatever happens between now and the end of the rivalry, there simply can only be one winner.

WWE could have its next major star on its hands if Owens is the man to bring down Shane and silence him once and for all. KO's supporters will argue that it's a position he should have been in much, much sooner than this, though.