Kevin Owens’ neck injury has apparently gotten worse. Owens is still awaiting surgery after a neck injury shelved him in April, but he has a tentative timeline to address the increasingly worrying issue.
On April 4, Owens pulled out of WrestleMania 41, citing a neck injury. Owens claimed to have had the injury for five months, though he had wrestled Sami Zayn in a ruthless “Unsanctioned match” three days earlier. Owens expanded greatly on his condition while speaking with close friend and co-worker Cody Rhodes on the latter’s “What Do You Want to Talk About?” podcast.
Owens’ neck injury was initially misdiagnosed because his symptoms were not congruent with neck or spinal cord injuries. Even after doctors identified the issue, Owens continued functioning without the typically associated symptoms. Unfortunately, that changed shortly before their podcast episode, released on Wednesday, was recorded.
“In the last week, for some reason, the symptoms all came in one shot,” Owens told Rhodes. “Every symptom you’d expect me to have, the pain in the neck, the stuff going down the arms, the legs not really responding, it’s all been happening.
“So it’s been pretty f—ing brutal. I can’t wait for the surgery. And then to move forward, whatever that looks like — but it’s been very frustrating.”
Owens spoke with several medical professionals and other professional wrestlers with similar injuries. Owens opted to delay surgery to allow his spinal cord to heal naturally. With his newfound pain, Owens is more eager to move forward with the surgery, tentatively planned for the summer.
“We’re letting my spinal cord heal as much as we can on its own before we go in for the surgery, because how extensive the surgery will be depends on how my spinal cord looks when we go in there,” Owens said.
“We’re waiting till mid-July to do the surgery,” he later added. “Hopefully, it’s a normal neck fusion. It might not be, we don’t know.”