The scheduled match between Kevin Owens and Randy Orton at WWE Crown Jewel on Saturday never started after both Superstars engaged in a wild brawl.

KO attacked Orton with a steel chair before the bell even rang, leading to a ton of collateral damage, including Owens hitting a referee with a Stunner and Orton taking out Raw general manager Adam Pearce with an RKO.

Owens and Orton ultimately battled into the crowd, and their altercation ended with KO hitting The Viper with an elbow drop through a table.

It wasn't long ago that Owens fought side-by-side with Orton and Cody Rhodes against The Bloodline, but KO showed his true colors at Bad Blood last month when he attacked The American Nightmare in the parking lot.

While the betrayal was not part of the premium live event, video of it made the rounds on social media after the show, which was clearly a calculated decision on WWE's part in terms of trying to create a viral moment.

In the weeks that followed, WWE tip-toed around the incident on Raw and SmackDown, and Owens accused the company of trying to silence him and preventing him from explaining his side of the story.

When The Prizefighter tried to get his hands on Rhodes during a recent episode of SmackDown, Orton intervened. That prompted KO to attack him due to his belief that he was taking the WWE champion's side.

Owens noted that while he expected Rhodes' actions, he was in disbelief that Orton chose Rhodes over him, which is why he decided to take his frustrations out on his former tag team partner.

Shortly after the altercation occurred, Orton went to SmackDown general manager Nick Aldis and asked for a match against KO. However, Aldis turned him down, noting that someone higher up than him in WWE made the call.

Orton responded by calling WWE head of creative Triple H to the ring the following week on SmackDown and asking him to make the match happen.

The Game initially refused, and after Orton accused him of trying to protect Owens, Triple H said he was actually trying to protect The Viper, who missed a year and a half of action with a back injury before returning last November at Survivor Series.

That irked Orton, who asked his former Evolution stablemate to put himself in his shoes and consider what he would have done when he was The Cerebral Assassin.

Reluctantly, Triple H gave in and granted Orton the match at Crown Jewel, which may have been the wrong decision based on the punishment he absorbed.

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