Background and career
Kevin Yanick Steen (born May 7, 1984) is a Canadian professional wrestler. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Kevin Owens. Steen began his career in 2000 at age 16. Prior to joining WWE in late 2014, he wrestled under his birth name for Ring of Honor (ROH), where he held the ROH World Championship and ROH World Tag Team Championship. He also wrestled extensively on the independent circuit for 14 years, most notably in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG), where he held the PWG World Championship a record three times, as well as the PWG World Tag Team Championship on three occasions. Steen also competed for International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS), where he held the IWS World Heavyweight Championship three times, and Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW), where he held the CZW Iron Man Championship. Steen signed with WWE in August 2014, and joined their developmental branch NXT before debuting on the main roster in May 2015. In WWE, he has won nine championships – the NXT Championship once, the Universal Championship once, the Intercontinental Championship twice, the United States Championship three times, and the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship (consisting of the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team Championships) once with Sami Zayn, which made Owens WWE's 23rd overall Grand Slam Champion. He has headlined multiple pay-per-view events for WWE, including the company's flagship annual event, WrestleMania, on two occasions (38 - Night 1 and 39 - Night 1).
Kevin Yanick Steen was born on May 7, 1984, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, Canada, and raised in Marieville, 29 kilometres (18 mi) east of Montreal. He is of French-Canadian and Irish descent and speaks French as his first language. He learned to speak English by mimicking everything he heard while watching WWF Monday Night Raw. Steen participated in ice hockey, soccer, and baseball, but never considered developing a career out of them—especially soccer, after suffering an injury at age 11—and instead considered becoming a professional wrestler after he and his father watched a videotape of the match between Diesel and Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XI.
When Steen was 14, his parents allowed him to start training with Serge Jodoin, a wrestler based in Quebec. The following year, Steen began training with Jacques Rougeau. He also trained with Terry Taylor, whom he has called his "main trainer". Steen had his first match on May 7, 2000 (his 16th birthday) in L'Assomption, Quebec. Steen trained with Rougeau and wrestled for Rougeau's promotion for four years, before beginning to wrestle with several other Canadian promotions.
On August 16, 2003, Steen made his International Wrestling Syndicate (IWS) debut at Born to Bleed. At Blood, Sweat and Beers on October 18, Pierre Carl Ouellet defeated Steen and El Generico in a triple threat match. On November 15, at Payback's A Bitch, El Generico defeated Steen in their first-ever singles match against each other. IWS held its 5th anniversary show "V" on June 15, 2004, at Le SPAG, where El Generico won his first IWS World Heavyweight Championship, only to have Steen cash in his number one contendership (won earlier that night against Excess 69) on El Generico, also winning his first IWS World Heavyweight Championship. Steen's first title reign marked a pivotal milestone in the history of the promotion when he became the first IWS World Heavyweight Champion to internationally defend the title, defeating Roderick Strong on October 30 in Rahway, New Jersey for Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW). On September 22, 2007, at Blood, Sweat & Beers, Steen defeated Jay Briscoe. On March 22, 2008, at Know Your Enemies, Steen won his second IWS World Heavyweight Championship by defeating Max Boyer and former champion El Generico in a 3-Way match. On May 24, at Freedom to Fight, Steen became the first person to hold two IWS titles simultaneously when he defeated Boyer to win the IWS Canadian Championship in an IWS Championship Unification match.
Steen made his Combat Zone Wrestling (CZW) debut on September 10, 2004, at High Stakes II, where SeXXXy Eddy defeated Steen, El Generico and Excess 69 in an IWS 4-Way match which was unofficially chosen as "CZW Match of the Year". On May 14, 2005, Steen took part in the "CZW Best of the Best" tournament, defeating Kenny The Bastard in the first round and Chris Hero in the second round to advance to the finals, where he lost a fatal four-way match involving B-Boy, Super Dragon, and Mike Quackenbush. At Deja Vu 3 on August 13, Steen defeated Franky The Mobster to win the CZW Iron Man Championship. He held the championship for 364 days until losing it on August 12, 2006, to female wrestler LuFisto in a steel cage match at CZW Trapped involving The Canadians, The Blackout, The Forefathers of CZW, and Eddie Kingston. He then departed for a tour with Dragon Gate and did not return to CZW until February 2008, when he made a one-time appearance and fought Vordell Walker to a no contest. Steen returned to CZW in April 2014, competing in two matches against Masato Tanaka and D. J. Hyde, respectively.
While wrestling in CZW, Steen also began working for Pro Wrestling Guerrilla (PWG). On May 13, 2005, at Jason Takes PWG, Steen was entered into his first feud in PWG, when he helped Excalibur defeat Super Dragon in a Guerrilla Warfare match, in the process revealing himself as the fake Super Dragon, who had been attacking the real one the past few months. On August 6, 2005, Steen won the PWG Championship after defeating A.J. Styles at Zombies Shouldn't Run. Steen held the title for nearly four months before losing the championship to Joey Ryan at Chanukah Chaos (The C's Are Silent), following interference from Super Dragon. Steen's feud with Super Dragon ended on December 16, 2005, at Astonishing X-Mas, where he was defeated in a Guerrilla Warfare match. In 2006, Steen began teaming with El Generico, and they began to pursue the PWG World Tag Team Championship. On July 29, 2007, at Giant-Size Annual No. #4, Steen and Generico defeated the reigning champions PAC and Roderick Strong to become the PWG World Tag Team Champions. They successfully defended the belts for almost three months before ultimately losing them to the team of Davey Richards and Super Dragon on October 27 in England as part of PWG's "European Vacation II" tour. The next night, Steen teamed with PAC in an attempt to regain the belts from Dragon and Richards, announcing before the match that if he lost, he would leave the company indefinitely. Steen and PAC lost, leading to Steen leaving PWG. However, Steen returned to PWG and, along with El Generico, won the title for a second time, this time from The Dynasty (Joey Ryan and Scott Lost) on March 21, 2008, in an impromptu match. Steen and Generico became the first team in PWG history to be a part of the annual Dynamite Duumvirate Tag Team Title Tournament to defend the belts in each match they had. In the tournament finals, they lost the title to Jack Evans and Roderick Strong, thus ending their second reign. Ultimately, Steen left PWG after interest from ROH increased. According to Steen, he could not wrestle for ROH and PWG at the same time and chose ROH because of the money and the exposure.
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
