WWE SmackDown: Kevin Owens to fight Shane McMahon, winner stays in WWE

The SmackDown live season finale ended with a bang on September 24. Next week, on SmackDown's Season Premiere - Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon will face each other in a ladder match. If Kevin wins, Shane McMahon will leave WWE and if Shane McMahon wins Kevin Owens drops his lawsuit against McMahon and stays fired. This is exactly the way fans wanted the new chapter of SmackDown to begin and their reaction said it all.

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What exactly happened

Shane McMahon entered the ring with his lawyers and tried to intimidate Kevin Owens by telling him how Shane's power could make the lawsuit go on indefinitely and only drain Kevin of his time and money. He insisted that they "start fresh" as Kevin drops the 25 million dollar lawsuit against Shane. In return, Shane would reinstate Kevin into the roster and relieve him of the hundred thousand dollar fine he imposed on him. KO was not having any of it as he insisted that he would rather hurt Shane and make him pay rather than dropping the lawsuit. He insisted that it is not about the money but about the fact that Kevin does not want Shane to share the dressing room with him as he does not belong there. 

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Kevin finally proposed a match that would settle it all. Kevin and Shane sign a contract deciding their fate and fight for it in a ladder match on next week's SmackDown. If Kevin wins, Shane has to leave the WWE and if Shane wins, Kevin retracts the lawsuit, stays fired from the WWE and Shane has to never see him again.

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How we got here

Kevin and Shane have been going back and forth for weeks now as Kevin did not enjoy Shane using SmackDown as his "personal playground". Shane later fined Kevin hundred thousand dollars for beating up Special Referee Elias. Shane later inserted himself into the King Of The Ring semi-final with Chad Gable and made KO the special referee so that Kevin helped him win in exchange for McMahon not fining Owens. Owens could not help McMahon as McMahon tapped out to Gable and ended up losing the match. A sour Shane proceeded to beat up Kevin and fired him on the spot. On last week's SmackDown, Shane was served a wrongful termination lawsuit by Kevin for $25 million.

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