Kevin Owens details condition of his neck and how he realized he’d have to miss WrestleMania, disappointed word leaked before Smackdown

Kevin Owens announced last night on WWE Smackdown that needed neck surgery and would have to pull out of his WrestleMania match with Randy Orton. He found out on Thursday after getting an MRI to find out why he was experiencing issues during his matches in recent months. Yesterday, he addressed it on the “My Mom’s Basement” interview, recorded before Smackdown but released afterward.

“I have to have neck surgery, which 25 years in with the stuff I’ve done, it was bound to happen, but the timing sucks,” he said. “Doing this for 25 years, I feel really great. Even now I feel great. I do. It’s not a constant problem. But over the last few months, I’ve had an issue in my matches that made me go I think something’s not right. Then we looked into it.”

He said he got a full body MRI out of curiosity in December to see how his body was holding up. He said the report said “my knees are shit” but he said he knew that already. He said there was some spinal stenosis, but everyone has that as they age. He said in January, he had a match that jarred his neck and that’s when the issues started. He said he had another MRI this week and found out it’s serious.

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He said when the doctor explained it to him, he was shocked that it would prevent him from doing WrestleMania. “I was so shocked, I stopped listening… Honestly, I can’t even tell you what the exact injury is. I know something is wrong with my neck and it’s affecting my mobility. I don’t know if it’s similar or other people, but I know the solution is similar to what a lot of other people have done.”

He said he “knows” he will be able to come back. He said he’s talking with the surgeon on Monday. He said he’s expecting he’ll miss 6 months to a year.

He said the incident happened in a regular match. “There were two very simple things I’ve done a million times,” he said, stressing it wasn’t a hardcore stunt bump that caused it. Owens said their entire job and craft is making people believe something is happening that’s not. “I’m very good at that,” he said. He said it’s a result of wear and tear of 25 years. He said it’s happened to others sooner in their careers who did much less crazy stuff than he has.

He expressed disappointment that the news got leaked because it’s some office employee who shouldn’t even know it. He said there are certain departments who have to know and someone there spread it. “They took away my right to tell people,” he said. “Because everybody knows already.”