Kevin Owens opened up candidly about his neck injury, offering a deeply personal and emotional look into how it happened, how he’s processing it, and what it means for his future — particularly missing out on WrestleMania.
“25 years in, with the stuff I’ve done, I feel like it was bound to happen. It sucks. The timing sucks, for sure. I hoped it would never happen, obviously, nobody hopes for it, but I felt like doing this for 25 years, I felt really great.” Owens explained that while he didn’t expect to be sidelined, he understands the wear and tear of wrestling for so long might finally be catching up to him.
He noted that signs of trouble crept in gradually. “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 is not right.’ We looked into it and found out there was something wrong with my neck.” A full body MRI he took back in December had shown “mild to moderate stenosis,” but WWE doctors assured him everything looked normal — “Your spine and neck, everything looks good…you’re fine.” But a match in January changed everything: “Two things happened that really jarred my neck. That’s when the issues started.” A new MRI confirmed something was seriously wrong.
The most painful part for Owens is missing WrestleMania — and specifically, his planned match with Randy Orton. “Not getting to wrestle Randy Orton at WrestleMania really sucks. That’s the part that bugs me the most.” He added, “This year was going to be me vs. Randy Orton at WrestleMania, which is huge to me.” While holding onto hope for a return, he remains cautious, saying, “Who knows, but pretty likely to come back.”
His emotional reaction to the diagnosis was palpable: “When he told me I couldn’t do it, I was so shocked that I stopped listening to him almost… I know something is wrong with my neck and it is affecting my mobility.” Though he hasn’t yet spoken to a surgeon, Owens expects the recovery to take “six months to eight months to a year.”
To critics who blame his hard-hitting style, Owens pushed back: “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.” He emphasized that “ultimately, to a degree, it would have to be wear and tear from 25 years” and sometimes “it’s just bad luck.”
He also addressed fans’ assumptions about how wrestling works: “Our entire job, our entire craft, is making people believe something that is not actually happening, and I’m very good at that.” Referring to criticism about using barbed wire, Owens said, “That’s what people do. They assume. Nothing I say will convince them otherwise.”
In the end, Kevin Owens offered a mix of realism and resilience, facing the reality of his injury while holding onto hope — and gratitude — for what’s still ahead.
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