In a solid match on last night’s Royal Rumble, Kevin Owens almost became Universal Champion in a last man standing match. Owens and Roman Reigns put their bodies through hell with moments that included Owens doing a swanton bomb off the top of an elevated forklift to put Reigns through a table, Reigns hitting Owens with a golf cart, and Owens handcuffing Reigns to a pillar in such a manner that would’ve made it impossible for him to get up.
In fact it did. And the match almost ended with Owens as the Universal Champion.
During the handcuff spot, Owens cuffed Reigns so low to the pillar that it would’ve been impossible for Reigns to stand. The referee hit a count of 9 before Reigns took the referee out with a kick to stop the count. Owens then got kicked with a low blow and a second referee came out to start a new count. Paul Heyman came out with keys to unlock Reigns, but there was a lot of difficulty getting Reigns free as the second referee started to count. When it was obvious the count would be completed before Heyman could free Reigns, the ref stopped the count.
Referees are instructed to call matches as shoots, but Dave Meltzer pondered on Wrestling Observer Radio “You know, this is one time they couldn’t call it as a shoot.”
Reigns eventually got freed and locked Owens in the Guillotine Choke to end the match.
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