6 WWE Superstars who were negatively affected by part-time legends

#5. Kevin Owens - First WWE Universal title reign ended in 22 seconds

Kevin Owens as the Universal Champion

It's hard to imagine that in nearly six years on the WWE main roster, Kevin Owens only has one World Championship to his name. That was the Universal Championship, and he won it due to the circumstances. The inaugural Universal Champion Finn Balor suffered an injury in the same match that he won the title, forcing him to vacate it a night later. A week later, Kevin Owens won a Fatal-4-Way Elimination match thanks to Triple H's assist and became the Universal Champion.

While RAW wasn't a great show post-WWE Draft, Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho were largely regarded as the best part of the show. It was a story building to WrestleMania, and at Fastlane 2017, Kevin Owens had to defend the Universal title against WWE part-timer Goldberg.

He lost the Universal title to Goldberg in just 22 seconds. It was an underwhelming end to a great Universal title reign, and many WWE fans felt that Kevin Owens deserved better.

Chris Jericho later stated that the original plan was for him to beat Kevin Owens for the Universal title at WrestleMania 33. WWE chose another direction, and it became a United States title match instead. Kevin Owens didn't come out of the situation well, and it took time for his momentum to recover despite being a Champion.