Kevin Owens Discusses His Tribute To Dusty Rhodes
Kevin Owens has discussed paying tribute to Dusty Rhodes at Survivor Series WarGames and says originally his salute to The American Dream was to be much bigger.
At Survivor Series Kevin Owens stepped inside the WarGames cage to do battle with The Bloodline but came up short when his former best friend Sami Zayn left Owens at the mercy of Jey Uso for Roman Reigns’ family to pick up the win.
But it was Owens’ attire that caught many people’s eye as he donned a Dusty Rhodes t-shirt and his famous red elbow pad as he paid his own special tribute to the man who created the WarGames match.
Speaking on WWE After The Bell, Kevin Owens explained just what Dusty Rhodes means to him having worked with him briefly before Rhodes’ passing in NXT and how will always give a nod to The Dream when he can:
“Yeah, it was a real thrill to be a part of it when I did that. I did the one in NXT just because it was great to be part of something that Dusty created, you know. And then to be part of the first one on the main roster and you know, I took the opportunity to wear his t-shirt and the red elbow pad as a tribute to him.”
“I talked to Cody beforehand to make sure he was cool with it and everything. It’s just always neat to kind of be able to tie back to history and give, you know, Dusty a little nod. I try to do that as much as I can because he was so influential in my career, I really had access to him for a very short time.”
“Like, we’re talking maybe 10 months between the time I started in NXT, and the time he passed, you know. But man in those 10 months, he really left a mark on me that nobody has, like I’ve known people for years and years and years and years in this industry, and they haven’t left half the influence on me that Dusty had in that short time.”
“So anytime I get to do something a little, like a little shout out to him, I take that opportunity. So to be part of the first main roster WarGames, be able to do that, and then just being part of that match itself, it’s a very exciting concept. You know, anytime there’s something new, it’s great to be a part of it. And this was new to a lot of people because it was the first time they got to see it on the main roster.”
“Obviously, not everybody that watches the main roster necessarily watches NXT, not everybody watched, you know, knows what WarGames was from all the way back in the day. So it was cool to be a part of this new concept that, you know, a lot of people probably start for the first time on Saturday.”
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