Kevin Owens was yelled at after an “insane moment” with Vince McMahon

Kevin Owens remembers being yelled at after attacking Vince McMahon

In 2017, Kevin Owens faced Shane McMahon in a very personal match at Hell in a Cell . In the weeks leading up to the match, Owens brutally attacked Shane's father, Vince McMahon: first with a vicious headbutt that left him bloody, followed by a superkick and finally a splash from the top rope onto the defenseless, prone former WWE chairman.

As Owens left the arena after the attack, Stephanie McMahon appeared on the ramp, yelled at him, and then rushed into the ring to help her father.

In an interview on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Owens looked back on the incident and joked that he didn't want to miss the chance to meet Vince McMahon properly after working for him for two years.

"He just talked me into it. He shook my hand and said... I don't remember exactly what he said, but he was really trying to provoke me because he wanted to make sure I did the headbutt right. What he didn't know was that I was already planning to do it anyway. I'd worked for him for two years—I certainly wasn't going to miss this opportunity."

As for Stephanie's reaction, Owens revealed that she told him something that TV viewers couldn't hear:

"She said, 'Get out the back right now!' So I did. It was a pretty crazy moment. When Vince was lying there bleeding, I was like, 'Okay, now things are really starting to get going.' But my favorite part of the whole thing was afterward—a moment you barely saw on TV, maybe only captured digitally. I walked back, turned around to look at the ring. I hear the crowd reacting, turn around—and suddenly Stephanie is right in front of me. She looks at me, completely furious, and yells, 'Get out the back!' I was like, 'Okay,' and walked out."

"I really like Stephanie. She was always great—not just to me, but to everyone. When Hunter was running NXT and we were all there—me, Sami, Finn, Bayley, Becky, Charlotte—at the same time, Stephanie was often at the NXT shows. She was always very supportive and proud of us.

That whole NXT generation was just special. Not just because of the talent, but also because of the support—from the coaches to Dusty [Rhodes] to Hunter and Stephanie. It felt like we were, in a way, their children, the ones they wanted to send out into the world. It was truly special to be part of that energy."

Kevin Owens undergoes neck surgery

After announcing a serious injury, Kevin Owens has undergone neck surgery and is now beginning the long road to recovery. Typically, the downtime after such surgery is around 12 to 15 months, but Owens had previously expressed hope that his return might be possible in less than a year.