Kevin Owens debuts new move on RAW; interesting reason why revealed

This week's Monday Night RAW was full of surprises with The Big Show making his return to the show after a two-year absence to align himself with Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe against Seth Rollins and the Authors of Pain.

But it was during the main event six-man tag-team match that another, slightly smaller, surprise took place. I'm talking about when Kevin Owens used a move that I don't believe he's used before.

.@FightOwensFight with a very timely SHOTEI! ✋ pic.twitter.com/aiHkdytVp0

— TDE Wrestling (@tde_wrestling) January 7, 2020

But why did Owens wait until then to bust out the running palm strike? Well, the WWE on BT Sports Twitter account has rightly pointed out that Owens seems to be paying tribute to New Japan Pro Wrestling's retiring legendary wrestler Jushin 'Thunder' Liger by using a move associated with him.

A nice tribute from @FightOwensFight to Jushin 'Thunder' Liger 👏SHOTEI! #RAW | BT Sport App pic.twitter.com/dJpYhoBdjf

— BT Sport WWE (@btsportwwe) January 7, 2020

Liger wrestled his last two matches ever at Wrestle Kingdom 14 recently, and many wrestlers have paid tribute to the iconic Japanese star. I fully expect to see more Superstars like Owens use Liger's moves as tribute to him in the coming weeks.

Despite being a Japanese mainstay, Liger has actually appeared in a WWE ring, taking on Tyler Breeze at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, but actually made his WWE debut 15 years before in the Tokyo Dome.

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Would you like to see Kevin Owens continue to use Shotei as a move? Leave your thoughts below!