Kevin Owens has confirmed he pushed WWE to institute a new face mask policy after he voiced his concerns to company officials.
Owens recently spoke with ESPN’s Arda Ocal and talked about how he initially planned to stay at home due to COVID-19. He says WWE has always made him feel comfortable enough where he could voice his opinion on issues, and this time was no different. Owens says some people might think enforcing face masks is a small thing but WWE saw the situation for what it was and took it very seriously.
“I know people, for some reason, tend to assume that that’s the kind of thing that would happen, and that’s just the way people want to think about certain situations,” Owens said. “I’ve been [in WWE] for five years. I have never once been afraid to tell the company that I couldn’t go to a show or something like that because something was happening with my family. They’re always extremely receptive.
“The company’s never made me feel like my career or my spot or anything like that could be in jeopardy,” Owens said. “It’s the same here with this situation. I tell them how I feel, they respect how I feel. Even with the mask, that could be seen as something kind of small, right? But it wasn’t. I brought them my concern, and it was immediately taken very seriously.”
“I wanted to make sure that she’s comfortable with me being in the house after I’ve been around a bunch of people,” Owens said. “Honestly, if it wasn’t for my wife telling me, ‘OK, the company is clearly making efforts, I think you should go to work, see how things are,’ I wouldn’t have gone back.”
Owens was reportedly a big channel for change in WWE’s facemask wearing policy. According to the French-language podcast, Les anti-pods de la Lutte host Pat Laprade (h/t to John Pollack of POST Wrestling) reported that it was Owens who spoke up during the July 3 taping of SmackDown that prompted Vince McMahon to implement a new policy on facemasks and the fines that could incur if you do happen to not wear one during the show.
Owens raised concerns about people not wearing masks and not practicing social distancing before telling McMahon that he was going to go home. He then reportedly told Vince that he would be the only person the crew would listen to and then asked Owens if he thought instituting a fining policy would work. Owen made note that he once swore on SmackDown, got fined for it and hasn’t done it since. Later on during that day, it was then reported by Mike Johnson of PWInsider that fines of $500 and $1000 dollars would be exacted for first and second offenses of the policy.
Owens has gone on social media multiple times to make a plea for people to wear their masks as his wife’s grandfather passed away from COVID-19 complications.
Let’s try this. pic.twitter.com/SJXJSpNfd7
— Kevinn (@FightOwensFight) June 29, 2020
RELATED: Adam Cole Opens Up About Kevin Owens’ Main Event Influence
