Heading into the 2024 Royal Rumble, Logan Paul had plenty of words to say about Kevin Owens, but respect wasn't one of them.
In the lead-up to the first Premium Live Event of 2024, Paul called his challenger a slob, a joke, and a man who dresses like a teenager, but one thing he didn't do was expect much of a match in St. Petersburg, declaring that he'd definitely come out of the Rumble with the United States Championship still around his waist.
*spoiler alert* Paul's prediction did come true; he won the match, albeit by DQ, and made an appearance on SmackDown as the United States Championship as a result, but after going to war in what some considered the match of the night, the “Maverick” revealed his newfound respect for the “Prize Fighter,” even if that isn't enough to earn him a guaranteed rematch.
“Wow, and I was going to be nice. Alabama, don't do me like this, if you don't want me here, I don't want to be here either, this place sucks! Look, I'll be honest with y'all, I underestimated Kevin Owens. I did; I mean, upon first glance, he kind of looks like a pissed-off donut, but hey, in our match, he made me fight!” Logan Paul declared to the fans in Birmingham. “Get this: Kevin Owens did more damage to Logan Paul than Floyd Mayweather. I'm serious, Kevin made me bleed, h*ll, this dude d**n near knocked me out and yet, he still lost. Hahaha, and hey, I'm still the champ! When is it gonna click for y'all? I am one of the toughest people on this brittle roster, ‘Oh, I hurt my triceps. My widdle knee hurts, my WrestleMania dreams are crushed.' Shut up! We all get hurt, everyone except me. I'm unbreakable, unreplicable, one-of-one, the beast of the East, the best of the West; I am your United States Champion, Logan Paul. And if you think that anyone…”
Tired of being talked about instead of talked to, Kevin Owens' music hit, and the “Prize Fighter” marched down to the ring with a microphone in his hand to turn Paul's monologue into a conversation.
"I am your United States Champion, Logan Paul"@LoganPaul is feeling confident after #RoyalRumble 😳#SmackDown pic.twitter.com/gu8dgc5pNZ
— WWE (@WWE) February 3, 2024
Logan Paul refuses to give Kevin Owens a rematch for the US Title.
After listening to Logan Paul run his mouth, Kevin Owens decided to give his side of their Royal Rumble match and explained why he's not going to slow down in his pursuit of United States Championship gold.
“I don't know, may, Birmingham seems like a pretty great place to me,” Kevin Owens said as Logan Paul attempted to interject. “No, I wasn't done; nobody wanted to hear any more from you. Because see, because see, when you're going over all of these descriptions of yourself, I think you forgot to add unbearable idiot to the list. And see on Saturday I didn't walk away with the title but I gotta tell you Logan, it was a moral victory. Because as great as being the United States Championship might be, it feels even better to knock the h*ll out of you. But now that I've done that a few times, I am absolutely ready to restore a certain level of prestige and honor to that title, and the first step is taking it off of you and getting it sanitized as soon as possible.”
Shocked by KO's response, Paul fired back, letting Owens know he was actually a step ahead all along.
“I'm glad it felt good for you, Kevin,” Logan Paul said. “But I think we can all agree it's too bad you didn't take advantage of your one and only shot at the title. You see Kevin, the brass knuckles? That was a setup: you took the bate dummy, you showed your true colors; I was playing chess, you were playing goldfish, son. Face it, dude, I outsmarted you.”
“Wait, who do you think you're outsmarted?” KO asked. “Look, this may be new to you, but all of these people have been watching me for almost ten years now, they all know that Kevin Owens is gonna stop at nothing to win a match, okay? Hit somebody from behind? Sure. Kick someone in the balls? Yeah. Hit someone with brass knucks? Absolutely. The thing is, look, I got caught, okay? I got caught, and look, I realize everyone was pretty mad at the referee about that, but let's be honest, great job on his part; referee, if you're back there, fantastic work, you should be proud of yourself. I got caught, and that was my bad, but here's the thing, Logan, I'll tell you something: next time we get in the ring together for that title, you're gonna realize I don't need brass knucks to beat your dumb**.”
Laughing off KO's assertion and making fun of how he smelled to add insult to injury, Paul let Owens and the rest of the WWE Universe know that even if their match at the Rumble was better than expected, he has no interest in running it back in the future.
“Listen to me, Kevin: you're not getting a rematch,” Paul declared. “You blew it, your title shot is over, so why don't you go focus on whatever it is you do, and I'm gonna focus on whatever it is that I do, which is everything amazing. And I'm going to go find a real challenge, someone who's definitely not you.”
Would it have been cool to see Paul be the bigger man and hand Owens a rematch in the name of sportsmanship? Totally, but when has Paul ever been the bigger person? No, if Owens is ever going to get back into the United States Championship picture, he's going to have to do it the good old-fashioned way: by beating the bricks off of mid-carders like Austin Theory until he's afforded the shot he deserves one way or another.
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