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Kevin Owens Calls Smackdown Return A “Career Highlight”

By John Canton • Published 20th November 2022
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Kevin Owens has addressed his return to WWE television by thanking the fans for their support while also calling it a “career highlight” for him.

Over the last week, there was a lot of concern for Kevin Owens after he suffered a knee injury during a live event match against Austin Theory. They went to the finish shortly after with Owens beating Theory with a Stunner. Owens was helped to the back by a referee due to the sore knee. It was reported that it was an MCL sprain, which meant a sprained knee injury.

In the days that followed, there was confirmation that Owens was going to be the fifth man on the babyface WarGames team at Survivor Series. After the injury, it wasn’t known for sure if Owens was going to be cleared to compete and it was a case of if he was cleared then we’d see him on Smackdown on November 18th.

The ending of Smackdown saw Owens make his big return as he saved his WarGames team of Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, Butch & Ridge Holland as they battled The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Sami Zayn & Solo Sikoa). As Owens made his way out there to hit both Usos with superkicks, he showed no signs of the knee injury that he dealt with last weekend, which means he is cleared and ready to compete again.

When Owens got into the ring, he had a brief staredown with his best friend Zayn. There was no physicality between them, but the fans were really loud about it.

After Reigns hit Owens with a Superman Punch, Owens was able to come back and hit a Stunner on The Tribal Chief, which led to Reigns retreating with The Bloodline. Owens posed with The Brawling Brutes and McIntyre while WWE made the WarGames match official.

Owens tweeted about his return to WWE television while taking a moment to thank the fans for supporting him.

“Just wanted to say thank you… Seeing the response to my return and how much you guys missed me being on your tv screen is truly humbling. You all made last night a career highlight for me and in return, I promise to always give you guys everything I have. Every. Single. Time.”

It’s been nearly two months since Owens was featured in a televised match because the last time he was in a match, he won a six-man tag team match on the September 30th edition of Smackdown with Drew McIntyre & Johnny Gargano on his teammates. Since Owens was not a part of Crown Jewel, WWE chose to keep him off television and bring him back to set him up for Survivor Series.

You can watch Kevin Owens and his team in the WarGames match at WWE Survivor Series streaming live on Peacock in the U.S. and on WWE Network everywhere else at 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT on Saturday, November 26th.