Kevin Owens has been nothing short of positive since returning to the ring.
Owens, who made his sudden return at Summerslam following a neck surgery that kept him out of the ring for over a year, says it feels as though he’s simply picking up where he left off in his WWE career. Ring rust be damned, the Canadian talent told Faces Magazine that “nothing’s changed” for him since returning.
“It really feels like I never left, like, I wasn’t off for 17 months. It’s right back to where I go to work, everything feels the same, getting back on the plane, getting to the hotel, and the next day going to the show, seeing the crew and everybody I was close with. Nothing’s changed, we picked up right where we left off, not only in the ring and in terms of with the fans and where I stand on Smackdown, but everything in between, like the people that I missed for 17 months, my friends at work that I didn’t get to see anymore. Not just my fellow wrestlers, but the crew and everybody behind the scenes that I got close with over the last 10 years.”
Owens was thrown back into Smackdown’s title picture at Summerslam, winning a four-way #1 contenders match for the Undisputed WWE Championship. He’ll cash in that opportunity against defending champ CM Punk as part of tomorrow’s Smackdown from Toronto.
To get into such a high-profile position upon return, Owens had to fast-track his road back to the ring. After hearing long-awaited positive results on how his neck was recovering following surgery, Owens said he put a sudden end to a vacation he was on and sped through WWE’s process to get medically cleared to compete.
I cut my vacation short to get back in the ring as soon as I could. There’s a process to get medically cleared, and the longer you’ve been out, the longer that process is, depending on the injury, the surgery and all of that stuff. Somehow, again, this is one of these cases where I’m kind of driving everybody nuts, and I kept asking how long until I’m cleared, how can I fast track it, what I can do to make it as soon as possible, this and that. And they were like well, there’s no shortcuts here. If this needs to happen, then it needs to happen. Usually, it takes about four weeks to get all of this done, I did it in nine days.
I basically took everything they wanted me to do, and instead of doing one thing one day, one thing the next day, one thing a few days later, I just did everything back-to-back-to-back. And, at the end of that they’re like ‘alright, you’re cleared.’
Owens later also discussed what it felt like being on the sidelines throughout 2025, what it means to be facing Punk in the ring this weekend, and more. You can read the full conversation with Faces Magazine here.
