During a recent interview with Sports Illustrated, Kevin Owens revealed that he suffered a minor ankle injury at WrestleMania which was why he was absent from television for several weeks. However, it's no secret that he vanished from television due to COVID-19, but once again returned to the company during last Monday's RAW.
So, what's been happening? Owens lives in Orlando and that means travelling to the WWE Performance Center isn't a problem. However, his decision to no longer work tapings was because he and his wife felt they should quarantine and follow social distancing guidelines after a loss in the family.
"A big part of this is my wife lost her grandfather to COVID," the former Universal Champion explained. "We make these decisions together. I don’t want anything I do to make my wife uncomfortable when I get back home. I want to make sure that she feels safe and that my children are safe. Every decision I make, I make with her."
After his wife saw the efforts the company was making to combat the spread of the virus, she convinced him to return to work, but it turns out KO was instrumental in making masks compulsory in WWE.
"It’s been brought up—at first, the masks weren’t being taken seriously enough. Eventually, a fine system was implemented to make sure people took it seriously. That came from me," Owens reveals. "I thought that the masks weren’t being worn seriously enough, so I went and talked to the people in charge. They immediately did what they could to remedy the situation."
"I don’t blame anybody for the mask thing. It’s easy to forget how important those masks are. Some people just straight up believe that the masks don’t make a difference, and that’s their belief. But if we’re all going to work together and we’re all trying to keep each other safe, I think it matters."
"If you’ve had somebody in your family affected by this the way my family was, it’s a lot easier to remember that these masks make a huge difference," he continued. "These masks do make a difference, and I felt it was important for people to take that seriously. I was pleased that the company felt the same way and made sure to get the message out to everybody that this is a big deal. That’s why, in the end, I decided to come back. I feel comfortable going back to work, and I feel as safe as I can be there."
Owens deserves an awful lot of credit for that, particularly after we've heard claims Vince McMahon doesn't really take COVID-19 all that seriously. With Florida being hit badly by the pandemic, we can only hope that it doesn't eventually tear through the entire WWE roster.