Kevin Owens “Pretty Likely” To Make In-Ring WWE Return
Kevin Owens is optimistic that he’ll be able to wrestle again, even after suffering a devastating injury.
In an announcement in the middle of the ring on WWE SmackDown in Chicago, Kevin Owens told the world that he had suffered a serious neck injury that will require surgery. Owens was scheduled for a WrestleMania 41 match with Randy Orton, but that match is off now.
According to Owens, he had been suffering from neck pain for about four months, and doctors didn’t know what was wrong with it specifically. After further testing, they found out more, and it was determined that surgery was needed.
Every person and situation is different, but many people in wrestling often miss up to a year or more of in-ring action. It also depends on the surgery.
Kevin Owens did a recent interview about the testing process and finding out about how serious the neck injury was.
“So I know for a fact there’s a specific moment [the injury occurred] because in December, I did a full body MRI just on my own for curiosity just to see if there’s anything I should be aware of. You can see if you have issues with your bone structure or organs or anything like that. At the time the report came back that my knees were s**t but I’ve been well aware of that for a long time so there’s no concern there.
And there was something about my spine, mild to moderate stenosis, and I showed it to WWE doctors and they’re like, ‘Yeah, for what you guys do everyone’s got a level of stenosis. Everyone on Earth walking around has a level of stenosis, but your spine and neck and everything else looks good. Everything looks good for what you’ve been doing. You’re fine’. I was like, ‘Great’ and I felt great.
But then in January I had a match and in the match I had two things happen that really jarred my neck and that’s when the issues started so I knew there was something. And then we ended up doing an MRI this week and found out that it’s serious. So I think that match in January is what did it because I had an MRI the month before that and everything looked fine.”
Does Kevin Owens Think He Can Wrestle Again?
During that same interview with “My Mom’s Basement” podcast, Owens expressed optimism about wrestling again.
“I know I’ll come back — or at the very least, I really hope I come back. You know, I guess there’s … I never take anything for granted in what we do, so who knows?
But it’s pretty likely I’ll come back. And then, maybe we could do it [match with Orton at WrestleMania] eventually.”
As for a timeline, Owens said he had to talk to a surgeon on Monday, which is today.
“I haven’t talked to the surgeon or anything like that yet. I’m going to do all that on Monday. I mean, I know that most of the people who have gone through similar things have probably, you know, six months to eight months to a year.
So I would assume within that range, but I don’t really know. Like I said, it’s all really new right now.”
Two active WWE stars who had major neck surgery in recent years are Braun Strowman and Erik of the War Raiders. Both of them missed about a year of action.