Kevin Owens will be out of action for several months as he deals with a neck injury that will require surgery, officially ruling him out of WrestleMania 41 and beyond.
In addition to his appearances at Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber, Owens also wrestled on the January 24th episode of SmackDown in a singles match against Jimmy Uso, and the previous week against Rey Mysterio. It’s currently unclear when the injury was sustained, though it’s believed to be the result of cumulative wear rather than a single incident.
Owens opened up about his condition and road ahead in a new interview on My Mom’s Basement with Robbie Fox, offering insight into his mindset and how he’s coping with the setback.
On the injury: Yeah, I have to go have neck surgery, which, you know, 25 years in with the stuff I’ve done, I feel like it was bound to happen, you know. But it sucks, man. The timing sucks. I hope it would never happen. Obviously, nobody hopes for it, but I kind of felt like I was actually, I just did an interview with Chris, and I was telling him how, for doing this for 25 years, I feel really great. And even now, I feel great. I do. It’s not like a constant problem, but over the last few months, I’ve had an issue in my matches that made me go, ‘I think something’s not right.’ And then we looked into it and found out, yeah, there’s some something going on with my neck.”
On when it happened: “So I know for a fact there’s a specific moment because in December, I did a full body MRI just on my own for curiosity, just like to make sure, you know, to see if there’s anything that I should be aware of, you know. And it’s kind of the thing where, like, yet it, you know, you could see if there you have issues with your bone structure or whatever, or even, like, you know, organs, anything like that. And at the time, the report came back that my knees were shit, but I’ve been well aware of that for a long time, so there’s no concern there. There’s something about my spine, and you know, mild to moderate stenosis, which for what we do. And I, you know, I showed it to the WWE doctor. I’m 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 you know, yours is your spine and your neck, and everything looks good. Everything looks good for what you’ve been doing. You’re fine. So great, and I felt great. But then, in January, I had a match, and in the match, two things happened that really jarred my neck, and that’s when the issue started. So I knew there was something. And then we ended up doing an MRI this week and found out that, yeah, it’s serious. So yeah, I think that match in January is what did it because I had an MRI a month before that, and everything looked fine so.”
On whether any of the bumps: So this is the funny part, right? I know that some of my detractors, and there’s plenty out there, will say, see, this is why I shouldn’t do this stuff. This is why this. This is why that. But I am telling you it happened in a regular match. No hardcore things, nothing. There were two very simple things that I’ve done a million times, and then I had the other, you know, ultimately, probably shouldn’t have had those matches, considering all the time, but we didn’t know. But in those matches, as crazy as they were, at no time did I feel like my neck, like I didn’t land on my head, I didn’t get hurt, like I don’t remember anything in those matches going, Oh, my neck. You know what I mean?”
On whether he’s talked with people who got surgery: “I’ve talked to a few people. Honestly, it’s kind of funny. When the WWE doctor called me to tell me about it, I was so shocked, because I knew there was something wrong with I didn’t expect it to be it so wrong that you can’t even do WrestleMania. I thought it’s yeah, we’ll take care of it after WrestleMania. So when he told me I couldn’t do it, I was so shocked that I stopped listening to him almost. And he was trying, you know, he was explaining to me everything that’s happening, what we’re gonna do. And I honestly, right now, I can’t even sit here and tell you I know what, like, I know what the next step is, but I kind of almost don’t know what the exact injury is like, what’s, you know, the actual, like, I know something’s wrong with my neck and it’s affecting my my my mobility or whatever, but I was just so zoned out. So I don’t know if it’s similar or not to other people. I know that the solution is very similar to what a lot of other people have done…Yeah, surgery.”
On the next steps: “No, it’s so new. This all happened yesterday. So obviously, tonight is Smackdown. I’m going to announce that I can’t do WrestleMania, and then I’m going to go see the crew we have in Birmingham to figure out what the next step is.”
