Kevin Owens Reveals His Original WWE Return Plans

WWE

Kevin Owens has revealed the two times that he wanted to make his WWE return, with John Cena’s retirement year playing into his hopes.

Having been absent due to a potentially career-ending injury, Kevin Owens made his return at WWE SummerSlam on August 2.

Owens had been sidelined with a neck injury announced in April of last year, seeing him miss a scheduled match against Randy Orton at WrestleMania 41.

Undergoing surgery, with Randy Orton playing a part in the decision, Owens revealed his hopes to return much faster than he did, basing his assumption on an injury he suffered in his twenties.

Speaking on the SummerSlam Recap edition of WWE Now, Owens revealed he hoped to return to face John Cena during the star’s retirement tour, and also at Montreal in January, neither of which was possible, explaining:

“July 18, 2025 was my surgery. I usually… six months after the surgery is the first scan; I started asking them to do a scan at three months because, when I was twenty years old, I had ACL surgery, and most people take nine months to get back from that, it took me three. So, I’m like, this is the same thing; in three months, my bones are fused.

“Cos, in my head, I’m like I’m gonna come back before John Cena retires so that I can wrestle him one more time.”

“They humored me and did the scan and they were like ‘Yeah, not happening’. They did another scan at four months because I wanted to come back in Montreal in January, and they’re like ‘we can’t do it’.

“Then, another scan at six months, which is when they were supposed to do it, they were like ‘It’s still not right’. Then they were ‘We’re not doing a scan for another long while.’

“We did another one at nine months; it still wasn’t good. At that point, I was like it might not… maybe it just won’t happen, you know what I mean?

“So, then, finally, I did a scan at the beginning of July, and they called me and said, “look, we saw enough progress and enough bone growth that we’re comfortable letting you get back in the ring and see how you feel and we’ll go from there.”

“I got back in the ring for the very first time on July 18 this year, one year to the day after my surgery.”

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Owens would reveal that he cut a family holiday short to make a return so that he could say it was just a year of being out of action, commenting that he got a WWE Performance Center trainer called Tara to come in on his day off in order to make that happen.

Having won his return match at SummerSlam, Owens became number one contender for CM Punk’s WWE Championship.

The Comeback That Nearly Wasn’t

Speaking in post-SummerSlam comments, Owens opened up about the possibility that his in-ring career was over, commenting that he “was not ready” for that possibility.

Having suffered a serious injury, Owens wouldn’t be the first WWE star to have seen an end ot their careers, with Big E being among those that the championship contender would thank in his comments.

As has been seen over recent years, some stars are able to make an in-ring return following serious injury, with Paige competing as Saraya in AEW, Bryan Danielson also making his return to active competition and Edge having also seen a career revival that now sees him compete as Cope/Adam Copeland.

For others, that in-ring return is off the table, with Big E confirming that he was retired, although reflecting on the “never say never” sentiment that flows through the wrestling world.

Medical advances are a constant, and more is known about injury now than was in the past decade. While the recovery may not have been as quick as Owens hoped, it’s those medical advances that have assisted in his ability to resume his desired career.

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• wwe
• KEVIN OWENS
• John Cena

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