Kevin Owens Praises NJPW Star For Having The Best Promos, Talks Stunner Approval From Steve Austin

Kevin Owens recently spoke with Sports Illustrated and praised New Japan Pro Wrestling star Juice Robinson for doing the best promos in the business.

"I think I'm pretty good at talking and getting my point across, but nobody makes me feel what they're saying the way Juice does," Owens said of the former CJ Parker in WWE NXT, who he debuted against back in 2014. "Yes, he's my friend and I love that dude, so it might seem like I'm biased, but I'm not. I'm friends with a lot of people and some of them suck at talking, and I'm happy to tell them."

He continued, "I don't think saying 'no' is me being humble, although I think that is a quality everybody should have?and a quality a lot of people within our industry don't have, and I find that a bit appalling, to be honest?but I don't think it's humility. I think it's foolishness to consider yourself the best at anything. But Juice is just on another level. He just comes and talks. I used to see it in the Performance Center. We would have these promo classes with Dusty Rhodes. The way he talks comes from a real place and he's genuine. He is the best."

It was reported that WWE decided to give Owens the Stunner because it would help him get over as a babyface, due to the association with WWE Hall of Famer Steve Austin. Owens told SI that he has no plans to rename the move to make it more of his own.

"No, I have no interest in calling it anything else other than the stunner," he said. "It's not the 'Stone Cold Stunner,' obviously, because Stone Cold isn't the one doing it."

Owens revealed that he decided to use the Stunner more than two years ago after he saw other wrestlers using various forms of the powerbomb, making his Pop-Up Powerbomb feel slightly more ordinary. Owens talked more about the name of the move and revealed that Austin gave him approval.

"I felt like everybody was doing powerbombs left and right, and I wanted to try something else," Owens said. "And one day it occurred to me that no one does the stunner as a finishing move, but to me, it's always been the best move. So I just went to Steve one day when he was here and I asked him, and he said, 'I can't believe nobody's asked me this before, but of course you can use it. Do whatever you want with it.'

"I did that out of respect for the people who've come before me. I would never want to do that without his approval. He gave me the approval and it's working for me, so I have no intention of stopping and no intention of renaming it, either. It's the stunner and it always will be the stunner."