Fight Owens Fight: The Kevin Owens Story

Kevin Owens was only on WWE TV for about two years before WWE gave him the best of home video treatment complete with a biography and collection of his best matches. The DVD/BluRay hit in 2017 under the title, Kevin Owens: Fight Owens Fight (trailer). It is notorious for being WWE’s final regularly released BluRay (with the only exception being WWE’s annual Wrestlemania home video still getting the BluRay treatment). All other non-Wrestlemania home video releases from WWE since have only been in DVD.

The documentary portion opens with a monologue of quotes of people doubting Owens making it in the business because of his unique musculature. I was one of those doubters too, but am glad he has since proved me wrong. From watching my one or two Ring of Honor shows a year I thought Owens could have still maintained the same One Man Gang-esque image he was going for, but felt he overdid it by 20% and I was/am concerned for his health because of it. I was legit shocked when the bio opens with lots of his early indie footage from his teenage years and Owens looked nothing like he is now and was in fit shape, with no beard and doing far more acrobatic moves similar to Rob Van Dam. My only criticism of the biography is that Owens never addresses the image he has now so I do not know if it is something he is doing intentionally for his character, or if it is a personal vice he has always been battling with.

The biography is one hour long and I was surprised that nearly a third of it focuses on his indie wrestling career. There have been other WWE-produced bios that lightly touch on indie careers of other stars, but Fight Owens Fight has thorough coverage of how Owens broke in as Kevin Steen alongside Sami Zayn, then known as El Generico, as they trained in former Jacques Rougeu’s training territory and went on to greater indie fame in Combat Zone Wrestling and then Ring of Honor. The feature interviews Owens’ fellow indie colleagues of that time such as Sami Zayn, Johnny Gargano, Neville, Steve Corino and Jimmy Jacobs to help provide context of what the indie scene was like at the time and how they were involved in some of Owens’ most heated rivalries from his indie days. Big ups to Ring of Honor and other indie leagues for providing plenty of footage to flesh this portion out.

The doc heats up on Kevin’s journey from being scouted by WWE and working his way through the Performance Center system and into instant success in NXT. There is a lot of vintage training footage here of Owens rehearsing promos that he touches on were big stepping stones for him that were a delight to take in. I also dug how it recapped his early WWE success with his rivalries against John Cena and tearing it up with Sami Zayn on multiple PPVs. John Cena, Daniel Bryan, Jimmy Jacobs and Zayn all provide tremendous insight to make these matches and feuds stand out.

The bio wraps up recapping how Owens was disappointed with where he was in his career opening the 2016 edition of Summerslam, but how a freak injury to Finn Balor resulted in Kevin Owens winning the title on one of the following RAWs. I remember being stunned at the quick change to Owens winning the big one at the time and how he went on to have a successful half year title reign. It closes with Kevin’s family and peers putting Owens over. One last hair I got to pick is I would have loved to see this bio recap the tremendous friendship/rivalry between Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho as that had such a great build that culminated in the memorable break-up at the ‘Festival of Friendship’ and their much hyped faceoff at Wrestlemania 33 that is included in the matches on this collection. Owens does have insight on this beloved rivalry with Jericho on his WWE Netork special for the ‘365’ series where WWE cameras followed him behind-the-scenes for one year. It is a very gritty look capturing a lot of Owens’ raw, unfiltered emotions during his run with and against Jericho and other feuds from a year of WWE television and is a terrific supplementary piece to Fight Owens Fight that I highly recommend checking out.

There are an hour of deletes scenes/bonus stories on the collection, most of which are of significant caliber that they could have easily been woven into the main feature. About a third of them revolve around more indie highlights like walking out of the Jacques Rougeau league and touching on his feud with Steve Corino. Other noteworthy bonuses are crediting Enzo for ring attire ideas, and WWE Network episodes of Superstar Ink and Unfiltered with Renee Young that both featured Kevin Owens.

There are 15 matches included in Fight Owens Fight. Four of which are exclusive to the BluRay. As expected there are a few Sami Zayn matches, and unsurprisingly all of them are winners with their PPV blow-off bout at Battleground 2016 being the runaway best match of the 15 in this collection. Runners-up would be an inventive last man standing bout with Dean Ambrose and his awesome WWE PPV debut clash with John Cena at the 2015 Elimination Chamber. Definitely do not skip over the Dolph Ziggler match on a 2016 episode of Main Event. I did a double-take at its listing, but it is worth it as the match got a lot of time and has features a ton of hilarious improv from Owens getting himself over as the ‘king of headlocks’ in the match and Jerry Lawler having a blast with it on commentary.

I have seen other home video collections from WWE before that they rushed out too early in a star’s career and that is not the case with Fight Owens Fight. It has a thorough biography with a surprisingly detailed look at his indie years and his early NXT/WWE success. Top it off with a mostly satisfying selection of his WWE and NXT matches and that results in this being a must-have for your collection.

Past Wrestling Blogs

Best of WCW Clash of Champions
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 2
Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 3
Biggest Knuckleheads
Bobby The Brain Heenan
Daniel Bryan: Just Say Yes Yes Yes
DDP: Positively Living
Dusty Rhodes WWE Network Specials
ECW Unreleased: Vol 1
ECW Unreleased: Vol 2
ECW Unreleased: Vol 3
Eric Bishoff: Wrestlings Most Controversial Figure
For All Mankind
Goldberg: The Ultimate Collection
Impact Wresting Presents: Best of Hulk Hogan
Its Good to Be the King: The Jerry Lawler Story
The Kliq Rules
Ladies and Gentlemen My Name is Paul Heyman
Legends of Mid South Wrestling
Macho Man: The Randy Savage Story
Memphis Heat
NXT Greatest Matches Vol 1
OMG Vol 2: Top 50 Incidents in WCW History
OMG Vol 3: Top 50 Incidents in ECW History
Owen: Hart of Gold
RoH Supercard of Honor 2010-Present
ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery
Scott Hall: Living on a Razors Edge
Sting: Into the Light
Straight Outta Dudley-ville: Legacy of the Dudley Boyz
Straight to the Top: Money in the Bank Anthology
Superstar Collection: Zach Ryder
TLC 2017
TNA Lockdown 2005-2016
Top 50 Superstars of All Time
Tough Enough: Million Dollar Season
True Giants
Ultimate Fan Pack: Roman Reigns
Ultimate Warrior: Always Believe
War Games: WCWs Most Notorious Matches
Warrior Week on WWE Network
Wrestlemania 3: Championship Edition
Wrestlemania 28-Present
The Wrestler (2008)
Wrestling Road Diaries Too
Wrestling Road Diaries Three: Funny Equals Money
Wrestlings Greatest Factions
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2015
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials Second Half 2016
WWE Network Original Specials First Half 2017