Tag: Joe Silva

Kevin Owens captured the WWE Universal title in a four-way elimination match on 8/29 in Houston as part of the company’s latest reset.

HHH returned for the first time since WrestleMania, single-handedly winning the match by giving both Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins pedigrees and basically handing the championship to Owens in the latest version of The Authority handing out the championship instead of talent winning it.

Owens, 32, has been wrestling 16 years, most of it on independent shows. He signed with WWE two years ago, and his career path and title win are the very definition of the changes in the industry. Owens has had the talent for more than a decade, as well as the interview ability and the ability to get over. He had everything but he was hampered by a bad physique. That physique kept him out of WWE until 30 and under the old standards that WWE, and to an extent TNA, judged talent by, he’d have been a career indie star.

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Image: Fox Sports

UFC matchmaker and VP of talent relations Joe Silva, a man that doesn’t even have his own Wikipedia page but is one of the most powerful players in the organization’s front office, is leaving Zuffa-land at some point this year, according to several media reports.

While many assume that Silva might be leaving because of the new bosses in WME-IMG, MMA Junkie’s Ben Fowlkes reported that according to a source, he profited from the sale enough to make his exit due to financial reasons and not personal reasons.

Silva is one of the few employees in the company left over from the SEG days.

In a business where many are happy to talk, tweet, and talk more in front of the cameras, Silva did rare interviews and appearances during his 21-year tenure with Zuffa. Yet, he was a fixture at UFC events, always seen cageside and in the cage post-fight shaking both competitors’ hands.

As the head matchmaker, Silva’s job was simple, yet complicated: create new competitors for champions and negotiate guys into fights. As many have pointed out, his relationships with some fighters have been rocky because of his negotiating tactics, but given the industry, lack of a union, and personnel, that’s to be expected.

While UFC nor Silva has made any announcement, the question of who’s next may be answered by an in-house option in Sean Shelby. The former WEC matchmaker has been working under Silva since the UFC acquired WEC, and currently oversees flyweight, bantamweight, featherweight, and the women’s divisions. Like Silva, he is also not out in front of the public often doing interviews.

Dave Meltzer will have more on this on tonight’s Wrestling Observer Radio and this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter.