WWE’s Title Chase: Owens, Balor and Knight All Still Chasing Gold

WWE has spent years teasing world title glory for LA Knight, Kevin Owens and Finn Balor, and with Money in the Bank now less than three weeks away, the question of whether any of them finally breaks through is coming to a head.

Owens and Balor both won the Universal Championship back in 2016, but neither reign left much of a legacy. Owens’ run lasted a while before a deflating finish, and Balor’s ended after just one day when he suffered an injury in the title match itself — a moment he’s never really gotten to avenge with another reign. Since then, Owens has come up short in high-stakes runs against Roman Reigns and, more recently, CM Punk and Sami Zayn, while Balor’s 2023 program with Seth Rollins felt like another missed chance at a signature moment.

LA Knight hasn’t racked up quite as long a list of near-misses, but he’s become the company’s go-to bridesmaid over the past couple of years, and fans are growing skeptical WWE will ever pull the trigger on him at the top. That changes, at least in theory, at Money in the Bank on October 10, when Knight gets his first singles match with Roman Reigns for the World Heavyweight Championship since Crown Jewel back in 2023. Knight himself acknowledged on Raw that most people don’t expect him to actually beat Reigns — which only raises the stakes on whether WWE is setting up a genuine changing of the guard or another letdown.

Balor, for his part, moved from Raw to SmackDown in June and now finds his path to Money in the Bank running through a three-way qualifier against CM Punk and GUNTHER. It’s a stacked lineup for a spot in the ladder match, and with Balor’s ongoing rivalry with GUNTHER seemingly building toward its own resolution, there’s a real chance Balor doesn’t even make it into the match, let alone win a title.

Owens, meanwhile, returned at SummerSlam after a 17-month injury layoff and has already gotten multiple shots at SmackDown gold, coming up empty each time. But with the blue brand’s title picture as unsettled as it’s been in years — title changes coming in bunches and Sami Zayn currently holding the belt — Owens looks like the best bet of the three to finally get over the hump. A title win over his real-life best friend Zayn would carry an obvious emotional charge, especially given how much both men have meant to each other’s runs in WWE.

The wild card in all of this is Oba Femi, who’s widely expected to be built toward a major push, possibly even a WrestleMania 43 world title win in 2027. That timeline complicates Knight’s Money in the Bank chances significantly — WWE may be reluctant to hand Reigns a loss to anyone else before positioning him as Femi’s eventual obstacle, though a sympathetic case can be made for at least letting Knight have his moment given how long he’s waited.

Whatever happens, the next several weeks should clarify a lot. Balor’s qualifier is an immediate hurdle, Knight’s date with Reigns looms as a defining moment either way, and Owens remains the sentimental favorite to finally cash in on years of near-misses. WWE has plenty of options, but not much time left to decide which of its longtime runner-ups gets rewarded first.