On this past Friday's episode of SmackDown, Kevin Owens announced that he will be unable to compete at WrestleMania due to needing neck surgery. His match with Randy Orton has been called off, and it's unclear when KO will be cleared for in-ring action.
The news came as a blow to the former Universal Champion and his fans, though rumblings about him possibly being sidelined started doing the rounds a couple of days before SmackDown aired (as per usual, it hit the dirt sheets before WWE could comment).
In a new interview, Owens shared his frustration and anger with the leak. "Yeah, it really annoys me. Actually, I woke up to seeing that it was already leaked, and it really upsets me, especially because I know that whoever leaked it is some office employee that shouldn’t know this shit in the first place, and I told people like, 'This is gonna leak.'
"They’re like, 'No, no, we’re keeping it tight knit.' But then yesterday, obviously some departments had to find out for some reasons," Owens continued. "And now someone who shouldn’t know this stuff found out, and it went where it shouldn’t, and now they took away my right to tell people because now everybody knows already, so I know."
Explaining that he realised something wasn't quite right over the last few months, Owens said he knows when the injury occurred and confirmed it wasn't during his brutal "Unsanctioned Match" with Sami Zayn at Elimination Chamber.
"I know for a fact there’s a specific moment because in December, I did a full body MRI just on my own for curiosity, just like to make sure, you know, to see if there’s anything that I should be aware of. In January, I had a match, and in the match, two things happened that really jarred my neck, and that’s when the issue started," he explained.
"I knew there was something. And then we ended up doing an MRI this week and found out that, yeah, it’s serious. So yeah, I think that match in January is what did it because I had an MRI a month before that, and everything looked fine," the Prizefighter confirmed. "I know that some of my detractors, and there’s plenty out there, will say, 'See, this is why I shouldn’t do this stuff. This is why this. This is why that.' But I am telling you it happened in a regular match. No hardcore things, nothing."
As for when he's likely to return, this interview took place before SmackDown and before Owens could talk to WWE's doctors. However, he now expects to be sidelined for at least the rest of 2025.
"I don’t know. I haven’t talked to, you know, the surgeon or anything like that yet. I’m going to do all that on Monday. I mean, I know that most of the people that have gone through similar things of probably, you know, six months to eight months to a year, yeah, so I would assume it within that range. But I don’t, I don’t really know, like I said, it’s all really new right now," the WWE Superstar admitted.
You can watch the full interview with Owens in the player below.