{"id":220287,"date":"2026-08-02T23:38:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:38:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=220287"},"modified":"2026-08-02T23:42:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T04:42:48","slug":"kevin-owens-cites-rebel-as-inspiration-reveals-when-he-found-out-he-had-been-cleared-to-wrestle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/08\/02\/kevin-owens-cites-rebel-as-inspiration-reveals-when-he-found-out-he-had-been-cleared-to-wrestle\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Owens cites Rebel as inspiration, reveals when he found out he had been cleared to wrestle"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3091563672\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Kevin Owens, who returned to the ring at SummerSlam tonight for the first time after suffering a neck injury that almost ended his career over a year ago, cited AEW wrestler Rebel (real name Tanea Brooks), who is suffering from terminal ALS, as an inspiration to him as he made a lengthy recovery to come back to WWE.<\/p>\n<p>After being inserted into a four-way match to determine a new #1 contender to face C.M. Punk that also featured Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, and Gunther by Smackdown GM Nick Aldis, Owens pinned Zayn to become the new #1 contender to the WWE Undisputed Championship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s somebody called Tanea Brooks, who\u2019s known to wrestling fans as Rebel,&#8221; said Steen while appearing on the WWE SummerSlam post-show panel on ESPN Unlimited. &#8220;She has not wrestled here, but some things are bigger than wrestling. She\u2019s currently battling ALS, and the way she\u2019s doing it is so incredible. I looked at her and what she was going through, and the way she powered through it, and it was truly inspirational.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Rebel was diagnosed with ALS earlier this year and AEW has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/07\/28\/aew-announces-rebel-heart-dynamite-episode-for-september\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> they are running a Rebel Heart themed Dynamite to raise money for ALS in September.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Raw: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/wwe-raw-post-show-7-27-keller-weigle-discuss-whether-wwe-creative-should-be-overhauled-after-this-flat-summerslam-build--73207876\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cwade keller\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"WWE RAW POST-SHOW (7\/27): Keller &amp; Weig le discuss whether WWE Creative should be overhauled after this flat Summerslam build\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=73207876&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Owens also said he only recently learned he was going to be able to return after getting cleared by doctors. \u201cThere was a moment I thought it wasn\u2019t gonna happen, and I definitely did not make peace with it, said Owens. &#8220;I was not ready. Getting this taken away from you when you\u2019re not ready is hard. But I had such a great group of people around me to support me through it through it: my wife, my kids, my friends, the WWE medical staff, even you (Big E).&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Owens said that he talked to Big E frequently before getting cleared. \u201cI would talk to you a lot, but I was never okay with it,&#8221; said Owens. &#8220;Up to a month ago, I was like, \u2018This may be it.&#8217; We kept doing scans, it kept not showing what we were hoping for as far as the healing process from the surgery. Then I was like, \u2018Well maybe it\u2019s not gonna happen.\u2019 Then a couple of weeks ago they said, \u2018We finally saw what we needed to see. You can get back in the ring.\u2019\u00a0 From there here I am.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wade Keller Post-show (7\/27) - WWE Raw w\/Keller &amp; Weigle\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/9B4Bj90LGX4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3005359061\"><div id=\"pwtor-2120838713\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Kevin Owens, who returned to the ring at SummerSlam tonight for the first time after suffering a neck injury that almost ended his career over a year ago, cited AEW wrestler Rebel (real name Tanea <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/08\/02\/kevin-owens-cites-rebel-as-inspiration-reveals-when-he-found-out-he-had-been-cleared-to-wrestle\/\" title=\"Kevin Owens cites Rebel as inspiration, reveals when he found out he had been cleared to wrestle\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":195658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-220287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/04\/Screenshot-2025-04-05-at-1.05.45\u202fPM-e1785731873614.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220287"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":220291,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220287\/revisions\/220291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}