Add as a preferred source on Google Kevin Owens says he wasn’t medically cleared to wrestle until a few weeks out from WWE SummerSlam, and that as recently as a month ago he believed his in-ring career might be finished.
Owens made his return on Sunday in Minneapolis and left as the new No. 1 contender to the Undisputed WWE Championship. Speaking afterward on the SummerSlam Post-Show, he said his scans simply weren’t showing the progress doctors were looking for, and that he had started to accept the possibility that he was done.
“There was a moment I thought it wasn’t going to happen, and I did not make peace with it. I was not ready.
I had such a great group of people around me helping me get through it; my wife, my kids, my friends, the WWE medical staff, even (Big E).
Up to a month ago I was like ‘this may be it’. We kept doing scans, it kept not showing what we were hoping for, then I was like ‘well maybe it’s not gonna happen’.
Then a couple of weeks ago and they said ‘we finally saw what we needed to see, you can get back in the ring’ and from there, here I am.”
Owens underwent neck surgery on July 18, 2025. The expectation within WWE at the time was that he would miss not only WrestleMania 41 but WrestleMania 42 as well, and that is how it played out, with WrestleMania 42 taking place in April.
His last match before Sunday came on March 1, 2025, when he beat Sami Zayn in an Unsanctioned Match at Elimination Chamber, putting his absence at 17 months.
At SummerSlam, Nick Aldis added Owens to Zayn’s match with Finn Bálor and Gunther. The Prizefighter won it by pinning Zayn after a Stunner.