Kevin Owens Details His Neck Injury, Being Told He Couldn’t Work WrestleMania 41

– As noted, Kevin Owens last night on WWE SmackDown that he has a neck injury that requires surgery, cancelling plans for a match with Randy Orton at WrestleMania. Ahead of last night’s SmackDown, Owens spoke to Robbie Fox on My Mom’s Basement, Owen discussed his neck injury. Owens noted he likely suffered the injury during a “regular match” that took place in December. He doesn’t have a timetable yet on when he will be able to return to the ring. Below are some highlights (via Fightful Select):

Kevin Owens on his neck injury: “25 years in, with the stuff I’ve done, I feel like it was bound to happen. It sucks. The timing sucks, for sure. I hoped it would never happen, obviously, nobody hopes for it, but I felt like doing this for 25 years, I felt really great. Even now, I feel great, I do. It’s not like a constant problem, but over the last few months, I’ve had an issue in my matches that made me go, ‘I think something is not right.’ We looked into it and found out there was something wrong with my neck.”

On the injury likely happening in December: “I know for a fact there was a specific moment because in December, I did a full body MRI just on my own for curiosity, just like to make sure and see if there is anything I need to be aware of. It’s a thing where you can see if you have issues with your bone structure or organs or anything like that. At the time, the report came back that my knees were shit, but I’ve been well aware of that for a long time. There is no concern there. There was something about my spine and mild to moderate stenosis, which, for what we do, and I showed it to WWE doctors and they’re like, ‘For what you guys do, everyone has a level of stenosis. Everyone on Earth has a level of stenosis. Your spine and neck, everything looks good. For what you’ve been doing, you’re fine.’ Great, and I felt great. In January, I had a match. In the match, two things happened that really jarred my neck. That’s when the issues started. I knew there was something. We ended up doing an MRI this week and found out it’s serious. I think that match in January is what did it because I had an MRI a month before that and everything looked fine.”

On the WWE doctor telling him he couldn’t work WrestleMania: “I’ve talked to a few people. When the WWE doctor called me to tell me about it, I was so shocked because I knew there was something wrong, but I didn’t expect it to be so wrong that I couldn’t do WrestleMania. I thought we’ll take care of it after WrestleMania. When he told me I couldn’t do it, I was so shocked that I stopped listening to him almost. He was explaining to me everything that is happening, what we’re going to do, and honestly, right now, I can’t even sit here and tell you I know…I know what the next step is, but I almost don’t know what the exact injury is. I know something is wrong with my neck and and it is affecting my mobility. I was so zoned out. I don’t know if it’s similar or not to other people. I know the solution is very similar to what a lot of other people have done.”

On not wrestling Randy Orton at WrestleMania: “It sucks. Not getting to wrestle Randy Orton at WrestleMania really sucks. That’s the part that bugs me the most. I know I’ll come back. At the very least, I hope I come back. I never take anything for granted in what we do. Who knows, but pretty likely to come back. Maybe we can do it eventually, but this year was going to be me vs. Randy Orton at WrestleMania, which is huge to me. I take comfort in knowing that I did it last year. I was in the ring with him at WrestleMania last year. This year we wouldn’t have had the other annoying guy in it. That would have been nice, but it’s okay.”

On if he has a timetable for his return: “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to the surgeon or anything like that yet. I’m going to do all that on Monday. I know that most of the people who have gone through similar things (were out) six months to eight months to a year. I would assume it’s in that range, but I don’t really know. It’s all really new right now.”

On his neck injury resulting from a regular match and not his Ladder Match with Cody Rhodes or his Unsanctioned Match with Sami Zan: “This is the funny part. I know that some of my detractors, and there are plenty out there, will say, ‘See, this is why you shouldn’t do this stuff.’ I am telling you, it happened in a regular match. No hardcore things. Nothing. There were two very simple things that I’ve done a million times. Ultimately, probably shouldn’t have had [two PLE] matches considering what was happening, but we didn’t know. In those matches, as crazy as they were, at no time did I feel like my neck…I didn’t land on my head and get hurt. I don’t remember anything from those matches of, ‘Ah, my neck.'”

On fan assumptions when he suffered a neck injury: “That’s what a lot of people do, they make assumptions based on what they think they’ve seen. Our entire job, our entire craft, is making people believe something that is not actually happening, and I’m very good at that. I saw people claim the barbed wire we used wasn’t real because I wasn’t bleeding, but that’s not how barbed wire works. If you land in it and get caught up in it, it’ll tear you up and you’ll bleed, but if you just land on it and it’s wrapped tight around the chair, which it was, it’s just going to poke, which is what happened to me.”

“I have pokes, but I didn’t bleed all over the place. That’s what people do. They assume. Nothing I say will convince them otherwise, either. Those people will go, ‘Oh, he’s lying,’ which is fine, whatever. I do think, ultimately, to a degree, it would have to be wear and tear from 25 years because that’s a thing too. This injury has happened to guys who have done far less dangerous things than me throughout their career and happened way sooner. Sometimes, it’s just bad luck and I think in that match, those two things that happened, were just off by this much [holds fingers close together]. It just changed everything.”