Kevin Owens Reveals WWE Star’s Role In Neck Surgery, ‘Severe’ Extent Of Damage To Spinal Cord

WWE

Kevin Owens has opened up about his recovery from injury and named the WWE star who encouraged him to get surgery.

Night 2 of WWE SummerSlam saw Kevin Owens make his return to in-ring action, being added to the match to determine the Undisputed Championship number one contender

Originally set to see Sami Zayn face Finn Balor, Nick Aldis, reinstated as WWE SmackDown General Manager, added GUNTHER to the match, before turning it into a Fatal Four-way with the inclusion of Owens.

Speaking on WWE Now’s SummerSlam Recap, Owens opened up about his recovery journey, which saw him sidelined since April of last year, saying:

“If people only knew how unlikely this looked that it would happen at one point during this whole recovery process, it’s wild to be here, man; it really is.”

If you use this transcription or any portion of it, please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.

Asked if he felt that the return was something that would never happen, Owens would reveal that Randy Orton was the one who recommended the doctor who ultimately did his surgery, stating:

“Yeah, there was a good chunk of time where – so I had the best surgeon, Dr. Adam Kanter. I cannot – I just texted him that actually – I cannot thank him enough for what he did; I will forever be in debt to him.

“Randy Orton is actually the one who put me in touch with him. WWE has an amazing medical staff; we have amazing surgeons who we work with all the time, right? But Randy had worked with Kanter, Adam Kanter was the one who did Randy’s back surgery and saved his career, and he recommended that I talk to Adam Kanter as well, get several opinions on how to handle this neck surgery. I decided to go with Adam Kanter, because if Randy Orton could trust him – there’s not a lot of people I respect more than Randy – I trust Adam Kanter.”

If you use this transcription or any portion of it, please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.

Owens would then reveal the severity of the neck injury that he suffered, which saw him miss out on a match against Orton at WrestleMania 41, stating:

“I’m so glad I went in that direction. As amazing a surgeon as he is, the severity of my injury and the damage to my spinal cord was so severe that even though they decompressed my spinal cord a lot and fixed a lot in there, there was still a chance I’d have lasting effects of the damage, and at one point my bones weren’t growing exactly how they should, or as fast as they do for other people. So we kept doing scans and scans, and it didn’t look the way it was supposed to. So, it was scary, man. It was scary. And then a few weeks ago, they saw what they had to see.”

If you use this transcription or any portion of it, please credit WrestleTalk.com and link to this page.

“Maybe It’s Not Gonna Happen”

Owens would reveal that there was a chance that an in-ring return was off the cards during the WWE SummerSlam post-show.

Speaking about his journey back to the ring, Owens revealed he “was not ready” for the possibility of never returning as an active competitor. Further, he would go on to note that “up to a month ago”, he was having thoughts that retirement may be his only option, with the medical experts only noting the necessary improvement in the past “couple of weeks.”

The reaction that Owens received from the fans in attendance at WWE SummerSlam was an indication as to how much they missed seeing the star in action. With Owens returning to a prominent spot, he heads towards a match with CM Punk, who retained the Undisputed WWE Championship against Cody Rhodes on Night One.

To make sure you stay up to date with all the biggest wrestling and WrestleTalk news, follow us on Threads by clicking this link!

• wwe
• KEVIN OWENS
• SummerSlam
• Randy Orton
• Surgery

Share this article with friends