Kevin Owens is back inside a WWE ring after spending 17 months wondering whether he would ever wrestle again. Now that he’s made it back, he isn’t pretending he knows how long this second chance is going to last.
While speaking to FACES Magazine, Owens admitted he could have one year left, two years, five years—or considerably less. After undergoing neck surgery and facing the possibility that his career was already over, he’s stopped worrying about how much time remains.
For years, Owens felt like there was always something else he needed to accomplish. More success meant more money for his family, and that created a pressure he carried throughout his WWE run.
“When you’re coming up in WWE and you feel like you have so much to prove, so much to achieve, and obviously the more successful you are, the more money you’ll make for your family, and for your future… it almost feels like you have all of these responsibilities and there’s so much pressure, but that pressure is gone now.”
That perspective changed when Owens was forced out of the ring. He had already built a career filled with moments he never expected to experience, but looking back, he realizes he didn’t always stop long enough to actually enjoy them.
“I had this incredible career, I did things I never thought I would do, I did things that a lot of people will never get to do. Through it all, I would lose perspective, and sometimes I wouldn’t take the time to enjoy those moments as much as I should have. I don’t want to do that anymore.”
After going so long without knowing whether another match was even possible, Owens now looks at every appearance differently.
“And now, every match I have, every show I’m on now, is a gift, because for a long time, I didn’t think it would happen again.”
That doesn’t mean Owens suddenly has a retirement date circled on the calendar. He genuinely doesn’t know how much longer his body will allow him to keep doing this.
“So, all I want to do is just enjoy every second I can of it. Because, I don’t know, maybe there’s one more year, two more years, five more years, I really don’t know.”
For Owens, figuring out the exact number isn’t the priority anymore. Whenever the end does arrive, he simply doesn’t want to look back and realize he spent his final run worrying about what came next instead of appreciating what he still had.
“But I’ll just try to make sure I keep as much as I can with me, so when it’s done, it’s done, but I have all these great things to look back on.”
Owens has already made his return count. He came back at SummerSlam, earned an Undisputed WWE Championship opportunity and immediately reignited nearly two decades of bad blood with CM Punk.
The difference now is that Owens knows none of it is guaranteed to continue indefinitely. He doesn’t know whether he has one year, two years or five years left. After spending 17 months unsure whether he would ever wrestle again at all, he just wants to enjoy however much time he gets.
How much longer do you think Kevin Owens has left in the ring, and what do you want to see him accomplish before he calls it a career? Let us know in the comments.
