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WWE News: Kevin Owens Teases Return to NXT, 205 Live Announcer Change

By John Canton • Published 11th September 2019
TJR Wrestling

Kevin Owens was “fired” on WWE Smackdown Live this week by Shane McMahon. The reason for the firing is because Shane appointed Owens as the special referee for Shane’s King of the Ring match against Chad Gable. Shane wanted Owens to do the right thing by helping him win. Owens even did some fast counts in the match, but in the end, Gable won the match (two falls to zero by the way) by making Shane tap out to the Ankle Lock. Shane was furious about it, so he attacked Owens from behind and fired him. That’s how Smackdown ended.

Owens tweeted this late last night.

What does that mean? The numbers represent the letters N-X-T in the English alphabet, so it’s obviously a tease for Owens going to NXT perhaps as soon as next Wednesday night when NXT debuts on USA Network.

A move to NXT for Owens makes sense at least for a temporary basis. Owens lives in Orlando where NXT takes place, he is very close friends with NXT Champion Adam Cole, who by the way has no obvious opponent for the next Takeover show. If Owens does return to NXT, the brand where he won her first title in WWE as the NXT Champion in 2015, he would bring some main roster star power to the brand.

NXT on September 18 and September 25 will run for one hour on USA Network and then the second hour will be on WWE Network. That’s because the USA Network show Suits has two final episodes in the series that will be running at 10pmET on those two nights. On October 2, NXT will be two hours live on USA Network from that point forward.

If you’re wondering about Kevin’s contract, he talked about signing a five-year extension in an interview in May 2018, so he likely has nearly four years left on his WWE deal. He’s not leaving the company.

For now, consider KO’s tweet to be just a tease, but it does make a lot of sense for him to go to NXT as soon as next week.

There was a change to the 205 Live announce team last night. Nigel McGuinness will no longer be on 205 Live because he’s on NXT, which will be live on Wednesdays every week moving forward. McGuinness will likely continue his announcing role on NXT UK as well.

The replacement on 205 Live is Dio Maddin, who joins play by play man Vic Joseph and analyst Aiden English. Maddin is a NXT wrestler whose real name is Brennan Williams. He played in the NFL for a few years, was trained to wrestle by Booker T and signed with WWE developmental three years ago. Now he’s joining 205 Live commentary as well.

The future of 205 Live is unknown at this point. With Smackdown moving to Fridays on October 4, that means 205 Live will either be moving to Fridays on WWE Network as well and they could tape it before Smackdown or perhaps after Smackdown. They could also change the format of 205 Live entirely by doing monthly tapings like they used to do for NXT. It doesn’t seem likely that WWE will just dump 205 Live, but that is a possibility as well.