Kevin Owens savages young fan

As Owens made his entrance at a WWE live event in Lowell, Massachusetts over the weekend, he took umbrage at a young boy positioned along the entrance ramp.

The seven-year-old fan was clad in the attire of Owen’s current foe in the wrestling world, Roman Reigns, and the WWE champion made it known he wasn’t happy with his clothing choice.

“Go buy this shirt,” said Owens, pointing to his own Kevin Owens brand. “Actually, you know what, don’t buy this shirt. I don’t want you to wear a Kevin Owens shirt ever.

“And don’t you ever try and touch me”.

Kevin Owens tell this kid to buy a Kevin Owens shirt! @FightOwensFight pic.twitter.com/4HW2JUyL4y

— Deno (@DeadByElbow) December 12, 2016

Video of the exchange was captured and published on social media and many have criticised Owens for his verbal assault on the young fan. The WWE champion currently performs as a ‘heel’ (meaning bad guy) in the WWE, and it is his job to get the audience to hate him. But did he take things too far?

The child’s mother believes he did and quickly took to social media after the event to defend her son and place blame with Owens for ruining the night and her child’s lifelong love of wrestling.

“My heart is shattered. What started off as an amazingly awesome night ended in my seven-year-old being completely heart broken,” she wrote on Facebook.

“He has a drawer full of everyone’s shirts but he chose to wear a Roman Reigns shirt, since he has been a fan of his ever since he started watching.

“All night he was getting high fives from other wrestlers and was all smiles, but for some reason when Kevin Owens came out, he singled out my son.

“He became visibly upset, sat down and kept staring at the gate.”

The irony in all of this was the fact that the young child was meant to receive a Kevin Owens shirt from Santa for Christmas. Something that will certainly not be happening now.

“Now he doesn’t want anything to do with him,” said the parent.

“Kevin Owens was actually one of my son’s favourites but now he says ‘he’s not even on the list of who I like’.”

World Wrestling Entertainment adopted a ‘PG’ mantra some years ago, to better appeal to a younger audiences and help attract lucrative sponsors that market to the demographic.

The figurehead of this new ‘child friendly’ movement is the WWE’s biggest star, John Cena, who has always been portrayed as a good guy on screen, for fear the millions in merchandise revenue he brings in would vanish should he ever turn ‘evil’.

As the company’s current ‘top heel’ Owens is meant to be the baddest of the bunch, but he’s in fact routinely cheered, because he’s one of the best in the ring and one of the most entertaining.

Maybe Owens has become sick of the adulation and wanted to ensure he changed the audience’s perception, one seven-year-old at a time.

The 32-year-old took to Twitter, where he delivered a veiled response to the incident.

“A wrestler told my son not to touch him. I’m completely heartbroken …. maybe if I complain I’ll get free stuff,” tweeted Owens.

"A wrestler told my son not to not to touch him. I'm completely heartbroken...Well, not really but if I complain maybe I'll get free stuff!" pic.twitter.com/VbXjLzLYOg

— Kevin Owens (@FightOwensFight) December 12, 2016