After making his surprise return to the Blue Brand as the final piece of the Jey Uso trade from SmackDown to RAW at Payback, Kevin Owens was afforded a chance to address the WWE Universe for the first time post-deal as part of a special Digital Exclusive segment with Cathy Kelley.

Asked how he plans to celebrate being a member of the SmackDown roster once more, Owens let it be known that it's actually Mama Steen's birthday tomorrow, and after dispatching one of her least favorite wrestlers, “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio, the entire family is going to spend some time together.

“Well, actually, it's my mom's birthday tomorrow. So I'm going to fly back to Canada and go spend the day with her, which is lovely. Without my mom, I wouldn't be here, literally because she gave birth to me, but also her support throughout my career. I needed it. Without her, I wouldn't be here. So it's great to get to go celebrate my move to SmackDown by spending my mom's birthday with her. So that's it, really. Just gonna go home and spend some time with my mom,” Kevin Owens told the WWE Universe.

“Actually, I would say it's pretty close to that. She constantly tells me how annoying she thinks Dominik is. Really, really, really does not like Rhea as well. Rhea is always on my case. Although look, I'm on SmackDown now, so hopefully she won't be around so much. But Dominik showed up for no reason today, so you never know. I'm actually surprised Rhea let him out of the house.”

Honestly, props to KO for coming up with a plan to get rid of his Judgment Day problem, as Kelley is famously close with Ripley. Owens' night, however, didn't exclusively come up aces, as, in exchange for ridding himself of his Ripley problem, he's also lost his tag team partner, Sami Zayn, who will remain on RAW following the deal. After winning the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championships at WrestleMania 39, it's bittersweet for Owens to see their tag team come to an end.

“But anyway, look, I'm excited to be on SmackDown. It's bittersweet. My tag team partner and friend Sami Zayn is still on RAW, so I think that effectively ends our partnership, for now anyway,” KO noted. “So that's kind of a hard one to take, but what can you do? I'm here on SmackDown. I'm gonna make the best of it.”

Is it unfortunate to see KO and Zayn split up after their first time as champions together within the WWE Universe? Sure, but do you know what? This isn't the first time KO and Zayn have been split up during their careers, and unless one of them retires in the next few months, they will likely be split up once more by WWE, a move to AEW, or another opportunity entirely. So really, it's not so much goodbye per se but rather see you later.

Reflecting on Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens' path to WrestleMania 39.

So, with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn officially split up, at least for now, why not look back at their comments from the press conference after WrestleMania 39, where the duo reflected on their path together from PWG in Reseda to the main event at a sold-out Sofi Stadium a few miles down the 405-S.

“I'll say what we said at the top of the ramp. After everything had kind of set in and everything that happened and we realized what we had accomplished and where we were at this point, we walked on the ramp, we looked at the WrestleMania set, we turned around and saw the sea of people and the stadium. The one thing I said to him was, ‘None of this would have happened without Super Dragon and PWG.' We made our name here in California, and without the opportunities that he gave us, I really don't think things would have turned out the way they did for us. It meant a lot to be here, to do it here together. It's really hard to put into words,” Sami Zayn said via Fightful.

“I said PWG helped us get here,” Owens added. “Super Dragon helped us get here. There are two other guys who helped us get here. Their names are Mark and Jay Briscoe. We lost Jay recently. I really hope we made him proud tonight. Great guys.”

When Zayn recorded the pin on Jey Uso in the main event of WrestleMania 39, it generated one of the biggest pops of the entire weekend in Inglewood. Casual fans rejoiced, hardcore fans celebrated a few indie boys made good, and no one looked happier than the two men in the ring, as it effectively put a cherry on top of a 20-year friendship that took them from Montreal around the world many times over. When the story of the KO-Zayn partnership is written, that will be the pivotal chapter.