Battleground 2016 Sami Zayn v Kevin Owens

Batman and The Joker. Superman and Lex Luthor. Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty. The greatest rivalries in history all have one thing in common in that they never seem to end. At WWE Battleground, however,WWE.com has confirmed that Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens will look to buck that trend and put their grudge to rest once and for all.

That may seem like a tall order given that these two Superstars, once the best of friends, have been fighting each other for roughly a decade in a conflict that’s spanned from bingo halls to AT&T Stadium. Few can bury a beef like that on a whim. And yet, the animosity between Zayn and Owens has grown to the point that it’s derailed almost every opportunity each of them has had since arriving in WWE.

If that statement is an exaggeration, it’s a slim one: Owens and Zayn have cost each other, in order, the NXT Championship, the WWE Championship, the Intercontinental Championship (twice), and the the Money in the Bank contract (Owens won their only singles bout during this stretch, but they were back to brawling less than an hour later).

That’s a lot of opportunities to miss out on, and an air of finality has swirled around Zayn and Owens ever since WWE Money in the Bank, when Zayn first voiced his desire to rid himself of the 266-pound gorilla on his back by challenging Owens to a one-on-one match that Zayn won by the skin of his teeth. Unsurprisingly, Owens kept on punching, fighting his old enemy all the way to the locker room area. The next week, both Superstars said aloud what the WWE Universe has known to be true: Their rivalry has finally consumed them. What was initially a display of heart and grittiness on Sami’s part has become an obsession with proving his superiority over Owens. And what was at first a sinister willingness on Owens’ part to beat up on his buddy has become an albatross holding The Prizefighter back from the next step.

So what’s next? One last fight, if they’re to be believed. And even if Zayn and Owens end up drafted to different shows come the July 19 Brand Extension, they’ll still have one last chance to duke it out and prove, once and for all, who the better man is. Then, maybe, they’ll get something that Batman, Holmes and all those other eternal combatants never did: Closure.