WWE rejected Kevin Owens' pitch of bringing back a banned move

Kevin Owens gave his all in the ring as a WWE Superstar, and he won't be on television for a while due to his neck injury. He recently revealed that the company rejected his pitch to bring back the package piledriver.

Lately, The Prizefighter has been dropping stars on their head with a package piledriver. A while back, the piledriver was on WWE's list of banned moves, and no one went off-script to do it inside the ring. However, times have changed, and Kevin Owens used it until he got injured heading into WrestleMania 41.

In an interview on INSIGHT with Chris Van Vliet, the former Universal Champion revealed that WWE initially rejected the idea of bringing back the package piledriver on multiple occasions. Later, the company gave him a go at using the maneuver on television.

"Well, the package piledriver was something I've asked many times before, and it was always No, not right now, not today, doesn't work, can't do it. Until eventually it was, yeah, okay, let's do it," Owens said. [H/T: CVV]

He also added that he didn't want to use the move on Randy Orton but wanted to use it on television before Penta arrived in the Stamford-based promotion.

"I didn't feel like hitting it on Randy was the best decision. I thought a normal piledriver was enough for Randy, because Randy is gigantic and quite frankly I didn't think I could get him up for the package piledriver, because of the way his body needs to be. He's just too massive... The funny part is I knew Penta was coming, and Penta was doing package piledriver and I was like, he better not get to do it before me," Owens said. [H/T: CVV]

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Kevin Owens used the move in his storylines in WWE before his hiatus

In November 2024, Kevin Owens did the unthinkable by hitting a package piledriver on Randy Orton on an episode of Friday Night SmackDown. The Viper was hospitalized and disappeared from the weekly product for months before reemerging at WWE Elimination Chamber 2025.

Later, The Prizefighter used the move again after he lost to Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night's Main Event in Long Island. Unlike The Viper, The American Nightmare recovered from it in the coming weeks and eventually defended his title against Kevin Owens in a Ladder Match at WWE Royal Rumble 2025.

After failing to dethrone Cody Rhodes, the former Universal Champion appeared on Monday Night RAW and dropped Sami Zayn on his head with a package piledriver. Later, The Prizefighter wrote Zayn off television heading into WrestleMania 41.