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Kevin Owens Provides New Details On Neck Injury That's Keeping Him Out Of WrestleMania 41

It's going to be a while before WWE fans see Kevin Owens back in the ring. He's now provided additional details into the neck injury that's keeping him out of WrestleMania this year.

Rick Ucchino

Kevin Owens to miss WrestleMania 41
Kevin Owens to miss WrestleMania 41 / WWE.com

Kevin Owens shocked the WWE Universe Friday night on SmackDown when he announced that he would have to miss WrestleMania 41 due to a very serious neck injury.

The former Universal Champion was just weeks away from facing Randy Orton in Las Vegas, but his condition is severe enough that doctors will not clear him to compete.

Owens opened up about his injury in a new interview with Robbie Fox on My Mom's Basement, and said that this was a day that was bound to happen at some point in his career.

"The timing sucks, for sure. I hoped it would never happen. Obviously, nobody hopes for it," Owens said. "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."

Kevin was able to pinpoint the root of his issues to one of the two matches he wrestled this past January. He faced Rey Mysterio and Jimmy Uso on consecutive episodes of SmackDown, his first in-ring action since undergoing a full body scan in December.

"The report came back that my knees were s***, 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."

WWE doctors told Owens that in his line of work, everyone has some form of stenosis. A condition where a pathway in the body is narrower than it should be.

Other than the normal wear and tear of wrestling for a quarter century, Owens was in great shape. That was until January rolled around.

"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."

Despite the new issues, Owens pushed forward and wrestled Cody Rhodes in a Ladder Match at the Royal Rumble and then faced off against Sami Zayn in a brutal Unsanctioned Match at Elimination Chamber.

Kevin admits he probably shouldn't have done those two matches given his condition, but he genuinely didn't know how bad his neck was until the MRI results came back this week.

"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," Owens said. "I can't even sit here and tell you... 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 it is affecting my mobility."

As far as a timeline for his return to the ring, Owens told Fox that it's too early to tell. He is hopeful that he'll be able to comeback sometime next year.

"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."

We here at The Takedown on SI wish Kevin Owens all the best with his surgery and recovery.

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Rick Ucchino
RICK UCCHINO

Rick Ucchino has been covering professional wrestling since 2019, but his broadcast career has spanned over 15 years. He can be heard every weekday morning on 700WLW radio in Cincinnati, OH. You can also read his work over on SI's Cincinnati Reds Talk. Follow Rick on X and Instagram: @RickUcchino

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