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Devastating News For Kevin Owens Fans Ahead Of WWE WrestleMania 42

By John Canton • Published Apr 10, 2026 13:45 EDT
Kevin Owens Talk WWE
Kevin Owens - Image via WWE.com

Kevin Owens has been away from WWE for over a year due to a serious injury.

The last match that Kevin Owens had in a WWE ring was an incredible Unsanctioned Match that he won over his best friend/best rival, Sami Zayn, at Elimination Chamber 2025 in Toronto.

That match was set up to pit Owens against Randy Orton at WrestleMania 41. However, Owens was dealing with a neck injury at the time due to an injury suffered in a previous match, and it was determined that Owens would need neck surgery.

Kevin Owens had neck surgery in July 2025, and it was the kind of surgery that will likely keep him out of the ring for about a year, but there’s been no specific timeline for when he might return to the ring.

During his time away from the WWE ring, Owens has been working as a coach/mentor on the WWE LFG (Legends & Future Greats) show on A&E that debuts later in April.

In mid-March, Owens was announced for an appearance at WWE World in Las Vegas during WrestleMania 42 weekend. WWE World is a chance for fans to meet their favorite WWE superstars and legends.

There is an update on Owens at WWE World, and unfortunately for fans, it’s not good because Owens’ WWE World appearance has been canceled.

WWE Let Kevin Owens Use Package Piledriver During Heel Run

In the second half of 2024, Kevin Owens turned to the dark side by doing cheap attacks on his buddies Cody Rhodes and Randy Orton. Those attacks by Owens included some vicious moves like the dreaded Package Piledriver that Owens used before he signed with WWE over a decade.

Kevin Owens admitted in an April 2025 interview that he asked to use the Package Piledriver in the past, and WWE finally let him use it during his heel turn.

“The package piledriver was something I’ve asked many times before, and it was always ‘No, not right now, not today, doesn’t work, can’t do it.’ Until eventually it was, ‘Yeah, okay, let’s do it.’

I didn’t feel like hitting it on Randy was the best decision. I thought a normal piledriver was enough for Randy, because Randy is gigantic and quite frankly I didn’t think I could get him up for the package piledriver, because of the way his body needs to be. He’s just too massive.

But yeah, and then Cody at Saturday Night’s Main Event was the right time to do it. It was cool. I waited a long time to get to do that in WWE.

And the funny part is I knew Penta was coming, and Penta was doing package piledriver and I was like, he better not get to do it before me, because I will lose my s**t. But it all worked out.”

Since joining the WWE main roster over a decade ago, Kevin Owens has built himself into a future Hall of Famer who has won the WWE Universal Title, held multiple other championships, and even main-evented WrestleMania twice.

Also Read: Kevin Owens Drops Cryptic Post After Randy Orton Aligns With Pat McAfee On WWE SmackDown