What began as an incredible match between Kevin Owens and Drew McIntyre turned into a truly Machiavellian power play from Triple H on Raw. After allowing the two former NXT Champions to duel to a stalemate, The Game reared his head to essentially stop the match and lay the groundwork to potentially turn Owens from Team Raw to NXT.
Triple H’s assessment that Raw management sees Owens as something of an unwanted burden may have been an aggressive sales pitch, but there’s no disputing a series of GMs have tried to fire him. The King of Kings, however, pointed out that KO never had any such issues during his days as the brutal, backstabbing NXT Champion. Much like the proposal Triple H dangled in front of Seth Rollins a couple of weeks ago, it was definitely something worth thinking about, hence the human wall of The Forgotten Sons, Damian Priest and Dominik Dijakovic that The Game employed to give him and Owens some privacy.
Luckily for Owens, whatever choice to be made was made for him when Cedric Alexander, Ricochet, Mojo Rawley and Buddy Murphy sprinted down the ramp to equalize the NXT contingent, and The Undisputed ERA’s attack of KO put any negotiations to a halt. The O.C. hit the scene to finally turn the tide in favor of Raw by chasing off Undisputed ERA, and while the NXT collective’s retreat seemingly prevented Owens from joining them, it oddly made Triple H’s point all the same. NXT takes care of its own.