Kevin Owens was advertised to be on the June 27 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw, but that Money In The Bank qualifying match against one of Elias, Ezekiel, or Elrod didn’t end up taking place. The match, which had a spot in the titular fight of the upcoming premium live event on the line, will apparently be rescheduled. Exactly when that bout will happen isn’t clear, but Money In The Bank takes place this Saturday.
Play-by-play announcer Jimmy Smith quickly let the Raw audience know, almost in passing, that the match wouldn’t be happening, and would be rescheduled for a later date. No reason for this was given on the air, but it doesn’t sound like what prevented Owens from wrestling is anything major. Ezekiel was on the show and was featured in a backstage segment with John Cena.
On the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer had the following to say about Owens not appearing on Raw: “Whatever the situation is, is minor. But he was not on the show, which is why the Ezekiel match did not happen as originally scheduled… I did not check if Kevin Owens would be ready by Friday. I just know that he was not ready tonight, but it’s nothing serious is what I was told. Perhaps he could be ready by Friday and they could do that match.”
The July 1 episode of SmackDown would be WWE’s last chance to have Owens and one of the E siblings fight for a spot at Money In The Bank, given that the show is taking place the day after. It seems highly unlikely that WWE would book that match earlier on the premium live event card and then place the winner in the highly physical Money In The Bank ladder match. Plus, if Owens isn’t able to wrestle on Friday then it doesn’t seem likely that he’d be ready to go 24 hours later. It remains to be seen how WWE will handle this situation, but as it stands right now, it’s not clear when this match will be taking place.
Owens and Ezekiel have been feuding for quite some time now, and have somehow managed to make this rather silly program work. K.O. is insensed that Ezekiel won’t admit that he’s the same person as Elias. That’s pretty much the whole thing, yet both men have committed to the bit so much that it’s made it click. They’ve been putting on entertaining segments in the middle of the card, which is more than can be said for some of the other things WWE has going on outside of the main event picture right now. Money In The Bank is set to take place on July 2 at 8 pm ET and will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
