Kevin Owens had one major goal in mind during his recovery from neck surgery.
Owens made his in-ring return at WWE SummerSlam 2026 after spending more than a year on the sidelines. Following the Premium Live Event, he spoke with Sam Roberts on WWE Now and revealed that one of his biggest motivations throughout rehab was making it back in time to wrestle John Cena before the 17-time world champion’s retirement (see video below).
Owens explained that he underwent neck surgery on July 18, 2025, and admitted he repeatedly pushed doctors to scan him earlier than scheduled because he believed he could recover ahead of schedule.
“July 18th, 2025 was my surgery. Usually, six months after the surgery is the first scan. I start asking them to do a scan at three months because when I was 20 years old, I had ACL surgery and most people take nine months to get back from that. Took me three, so I’m like, this is the same thing. In three months, my bones are fused.”
He said his optimism was fueled by the hope of getting one final match with Cena.
“Because in my head, I’m like, ‘I’m gonna come back before John Cena retires so I can wrestle him one last time,’ and they humored me and did the scan. They’re like, ‘Yeah, not happening.’ I did another scan at four months because I wanted to come back in Montreal in January. They’re like, ‘We can’t do it.’ Did another scan at six months which is when we were supposed to do it, and they’re like, ‘It’s still not right.’”
Owens said the setbacks continued, including another disappointing scan at the nine-month mark.
“So then they’re like, ‘We’re not doing a scan for another long while.’ We did one at nine months; still wasn’t good. So by that point, I’m like, ‘Man… maybe it just won’t happen.’”
Fortunately for Owens, things finally turned around in early July.
“So then finally I did a scan beginning of July, and they called me and said, ‘Look, we saw enough progress and enough bone growth that we’re comfortable enough letting you get back in the ring to see how you feel, and we’ll go from there.’”
Owens went on to reveal that he returned to the ring on July 18, 2026—exactly one year after his surgery. He even cut a family vacation in France short so he could hit the milestone.
“So I got back in the ring for the very first time on July 18th this year, one year to the day after my surgery and that’s only because I was on vacation in France with my family and when they told me I could get back in the ring, I cut the trip short by one day so I could come back and get in the ring on July 18th so I could at least mentally go, okay, it wasn’t more than a year, and I had Tara (Halaby), one of the physical trainers at the Performance Center come in on a day off just so I could get in the ring,” Owens laughed.
Also during the interview, Kevin Owens explained how Randy Orton helped save his WWE career from being over due to his recent neck injury.
