Kevin Owens Credits Randy Orton’s Recommended Surgeon for his Return to the Ring

Kevin Owens made his big return to WWE on Night Two of SummerSlam 2026 and defeated Sami Zayn, Finn Balor & Gunther in a Fatal 4-Way to become the #1 contender for CM Punk’s Undisputed WWE Championship. Fans across the world were happy to see Owens, as it had been feared that KO wouldn’t be able to return to the ring after a neck injury that put him out of action for seventeen months.

Kevin Owens appeared on WWE Now with Sam Roberts after his big return and gave some more details of his road back to the ring. He gave a lot of credit to his surgeon, Dr. Adam Kanter, who he met through another WWE Superstar that’s overcome a litany of injuries during his lengthy career and returned at SummerSlam: Randy Orton.

On Dr. Kanter & His Trust in Randy Orton:

“I had the best surgeon, Dr. Adam Kanter. I just texted him that actually. I cannot thank him enough for what he did. I’ll forever be in debt to him. Randy Orton is the one who actually put me in touch with him. WWE has an amazing medical staff. We had an amazing surgeon who we worked with all the time. Randy had worked with Kanter. Adam Kanter’s 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 whole lot of people in wrestling I respect more than Randy, I trust Adam Kanter. I’m so glad I went in that direction.”

On the Damage to his Spinal Cord:

“As amazing a surgeon as he is, the severity of my injury and damage to my spinal cord was so severe that even though they decompressed my spinal cord a lot, fixed a lot in there, there was still chances that 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 scans. It didn’t look the way it was supposed to so, it was scary. It was scary.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit WWE Now with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.