Kevin Owens Says He Did Four Week Process To Get Cleared In Nine Days

Kevin Owens sat on the sidelines for 17 months due to a neck injury and didn’t want to be on the sidelines any longer.

Owens made his return at WWE SummerSlam, competing in his first match since March 1, 2025. Owens underwent neck surgery in mid-July 2025, and was itching to get back once he started feeling better.

Speaking to FACES Magazine in Canada, Owens detailed the process of getting cleared.

“Yeah, everything was so quick. That’s the craziest part. By the time they told me I could get back in the ring, that was mid-July. I cut my vacation short to get back in the ring as soon as I could. There’s a process to get medically cleared, and the longer you’ve been out, the longer that process is, depending on the injury, the surgery and all of that stuff.

“Somehow, again, this is one of these cases where I’m kind of driving everybody nuts, and I kept asking how long until I’m cleared, how can I fast track it, what I can do to make it as soon as possible, this and that, and they were like well, there’s no shortcuts here. If this needs to happen, then it needs to happen. Usually, it takes about four weeks to get all of this done, I did it in nine days.

“I basically took everything they wanted me to do, and instead of doing one thing one day, one thing the next day, one thing a few days later, I just did everything back-to-back-to-back. And, at the end of that they’re like ‘alright, you’re cleared.’

“Then I got the call about SummerSlam, and everything happened so quickly between the time I was told I can get back in the ring, and the time I was at SummerSlam, there was maybe two weeks.”

Owens defeated Sami Zayn, Gunther, and Finn Balor in a four-way bout at SummerSlam to earn a shot at the Undisputed WWE Title.

He is set to challenge CM Punk for the Undisputed WWE Championship on Friday’s SmackDown.

Fans can find Owens’ comments on Punk here.