Heartwarming / Kevin Steen

• Can also be Harsher in Hindsight depending on your point of view, but his last ever match in PWG, where after it ended, he spoke about how he was leaving to go help El Generico with the orphans.
  • He also wrote "OLE" on his wrist tape.
• After their final PWG match together (as Generico was heading to WWE), Kevin fakes everyone out by going to leave without even shaking the departing Generico's hand. He comes back to hug his longtime friend/rival goodbye as the crowd goes nuts.
  Steen: Wherever you go, whatever you do, please know I would be nothing without you.
• At a house show on March 12th, Kevin Owens faced off against AJ Styles in an Iron Man match for the Intercontinental Championship. After winning the match and retaining his title, Owens uncharacteristically had a heartfelt speech about the long journey he and AJ Styles went through to get to where they were today. Even though shortly after said speech, in true KO fashion, he starts talking about how awesome he is prompting AJ to interrupt his rant with a flying forearm, for him to break Kayfabe for that one moment before going back to his heel self was definitely heartwarming.
  Owens: When someone decides they want to be a professional wrestler when they're young, 99% of the time their dream is for WWE. And it took me 15 years to get here. It took you even longer. And this is not like me... because this comes from the heart: as someone who has always dreamed of being in this ring, and as someone who has wrestled you in front of crowds of, what, 50 people? To get to do it here tonight in front of all these people in this ring was truly special to me. -crowd cheers- It took me way too long to get here. It took you way to long to get here. But it's not because we're not talented, because I will say at any time, because you and I are two of the absolute best in the entire world. And I take great pride in being the Intercontinental Champion, but I take even more pride in defending it against people like you. So we're going to do this again, and I for one, can't wait. -shakes hands with AJ-
• Owens makes his debut for Xavier Woods' gaming channel, UpUpDownDown... and not only does he out himself as a Sega Genesis kid, he brings along his son Owen to play Sonic Adventure.
• He named his WWE in-ring persona after his son. And he named his son after Owen Hart.
  • Anything having to do with his family. He's clearly made them his number one priority and loves being able to provide a good life for them (especially after the hard times on the indy circuit).
• In real life Owens is a close friend of Seth Rollins, dating back to their Ring of Honor days - so much so that when Rollins' faction The Shield made their in-ring debut at TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs 2012 Owens bought a ticket to the show and attended as a fan to cheer his friend on.
  • Not only did he attend, TLC 2012 was only a few hours removed from ROH's Final Battle show, where Kevin and Generico went through a vicious ladder match. Kevin competed in, and won the match while fighting what he describes at the virus from hell. He started vomiting right before his entrance, held it together through the match, continued being sick afterward on the ride to the Barclay's Center, threw up in the bathroom during other matches, but managed to get to his seat and sit through the Shield match. That's friendship.
• The complete and utter shock on his face when, during a fatal-four-way match for the Universal Championship, Triple H interfered and pedigreed both Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns, allowing Owens to pin Rollins for his first championship. Owens breaks down in tears as he takes the belt, living out his childhood dream.
  • When he gets backstage, Sami Zayn is there to greet him. All the miles they've traveled as Steen and Generico, all the sacrifices they've made, all Owens can say is "this is ours".
  • One of the first people he called after winning the title? Finn Bálor, the injured former champion and one of Owens' best friends.
• At Roadblock: End of the Line, there were a few segments regarding Kevin Owens' quest to reconcile with his best friend Chris Jericho, Kevin giving genuine and downright desperate apologies and gestures of friendship. Jericho would later go out to forgive his best friend to a pop from the crowd, despite the two being heels.
• During a House Show vs Sami Zayn (El Generico). After the match, Zayn stopped Owens from leaving and started cutting a promo on his history with Owens that dates back to their Indie Wrestling days. Zayn makes it a point that, while Owens is supposed to be hated, everyone in the crowd that day loves Owens and the work he's put in to get where he is and began to cheer for him. The amount of admiration he received that moment was so much to Owens that he began to cry, showing how much it really meant to him.
  • This also happened during a house show in Montreal (both Owens' and Zayn's hometown), where they both ran out to save Pat Patterson from a beatdown from the Singh Brothers and Jinder Mahal. For a very few minutes, Steenerico rode again, with Zayn putting Owens over on the mic.
• Watching Owens and Zayn finally be on-screen allies and tag-team partners for the first time since 2009 is pretty sweet. Their Real Life bond really shines through, with Owens kissing Zayn on the cheek pretty constantly and beaming like a proud parent whenever Zayn cuts a promo (after years of being masked and fairly quiet as Generico).
• Neither Owens nor Zayn were booked for Wrestlemania 35 (Zayn being saved for the Raw after Mania, Owens due to quietly giving up his feud with Daniel Bryan in favor of Kofi Kingston getting the WM shot). They faced off in a Smackdown dark match two nights later:
  Owens: You know, I missed Wrestlemania this year. (crowd boos). Yeah, I know. It stings. And you, Sami, you came back last night, so you were clearly ready the night of Wrestlemania, and you missed it too. We both missed out. What kind of makes it okay is that tonight is the first time we have been in the same ring in the last nine months.