Kevin Owens has revisited one of the most controversial moments of his WWE career — the infamous headbutt to Vince McMahon on the September 12, 2017, episode of SmackDown Live. The shocking segment, which also included a superkick and frog splash, left the then-72-year-old WWE Chairman bloodied and helped solidify Owens’ position as a top heel ahead of his Hell in a Cell match against Shane McMahon.
Speaking on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Owens confirmed the headbutt was delivered legitimately at Vince’s insistence.
“He just talked all kinds of sh*t,” Owens recalled. “He’s shaking my hand and trying to provoke me because he wanted to make sure I was going to lay it in. Little did he know, I already planned on doing that. I had worked for him for two years at that point — I wasn’t going to miss that chance.”
Owens described the surreal nature of seeing Vince rise up bloodied after the headbutt, calling the entire moment “pretty insane.” However, his most memorable moment came after the cameras stopped rolling.
“As I’m walking to the back, I hear a rumble in the crowd,” he said. “I turn around and Stephanie [McMahon] is right in my face. She looks furious and just goes, ‘Get the f*ck to the back!’ And I go, okay, and turn around.”
Despite the intensity of the moment, Owens praised Stephanie for her long-standing support of the NXT generation, including himself, Sami Zayn, Finn Bálor, Bayley, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair. He reflected fondly on the developmental years, crediting the culture fostered by Triple H, Dusty Rhodes, and Stephanie for shaping their careers.
“They really felt like we were kind of their kids, and they were trying to get us out into the world,” Owens said. “That was really special to be around that kind of energy.”
The 2017 segment remains one of WWE’s most talked-about moments of the modern era — a rare instance where fiction met reality in a way that captivated audiences and highlighted the extremes of WWE storytelling.
