Kevin Owens Reveals Surgery Timeline And “Brutal” Injury Details

Kevin Owens recently sat down for a chat with Cody Rhodes.

Appearing on What Do You Wanna Talk About? With Cody Rhodes, Owens discussed a variety of topics, including his recent health.

The 41-year-old has been on a hiatus since April 2025 after announcing that he would be undergoing neck surgery.

Since late 2024, The Prizefighter had been building a solid feud with “The Viper” Randy Orton, with their match finally set for WrestleMania 41.

However, on the 4th April 2025 episode of SmackDown, he spoke to the WWE Universe, informing them about his neck injury and that he would be backing out of his match against Orton.

On the podcast, the former Universal Champion expressed his frustrations surrounding the surgery.

It’s been such a frustrating process, we’re letting my spinal cord heal as much as it can on its own before we go in for the surgery because how extensive the surgery will be depends on how my spinal cord looks when we go in there…

…We’re waiting until mid-July to do the surgery hopefully its a normal neck fusion, it might not be, we don’t know. So since then I’ve felt fine, my neck’s been fine I’m not in pain.

Kevin Owens also claimed to have no real symptoms that a person suffering from spinal cord issues would normally have. But in the last few weeks, all symptoms came at once.

So it’s been pretty f**king brutal. I really can’t wait for this surgery and then to move forward, whatever that looks like, but it’s been very frustrating.

Kevin Owens Rejected Team-Up With Damian Priest

On the same podcast, Kevin Owens discussed rejecting an in-ring partnership with former Judgment Day member, Damian Priest.

A story involving Priest was pitched to Owens during the pandemic era.

In the storyline, WWE would introduce Priest as Owens’ “best friend.”

Turns out somebody threw this idea out there and it stuck for five minutes until I said ‘No, I don’t wanna be friends with him on TV, maybe in real life but let’s start somewhere.’ And yeah it got killed.

Owens’ surgery is scheduled for mid-July. His recovery will take a few more months before the former champion can step back into the squared circle.

H/T: WrestleTalk