When Kevin Owens re-signed with WWE in 2021 after seemingly receiving very strong interest from AEW to revisit his Kevin Steen character from the indies, it left fans of The Fed feeling very excited about the prospects of the “Prizefighter” closing out his career on RAW or SmackDown.

Sure, Owens wasn't used nearly as strongly as some might have liked, and the prospects of reunited Mount Rushmore in AEW became all the more interesting when Adam Cole left NXT to reunite with the Young Bucks, but clearly, he preferred the schedule, options, and upside of the WWE versus the lighter workload and creative freedom of Tony Khan's company.

The keyword of that sentence? Preferred, past tense.

Discussing his 23-year professional wrestling career in an interview with the Toronto Sun, Owens was asked about his future in the sport and noted that, after assuming his train would keep on rolling indefinitely, the last few months have made him think about his future in a way that may alarm WWE fans like Bruce Boudreau.

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“That’s a great question. I really don’t know. I used to say I don’t see myself not being in the ring for another five to 10 years. And if I said it right now, I’d be lying because over the last few months, I have to admit, I don’t know if that’s true anymore. I look at things, and I don’t know where I stand going beyond the next year and a half. I know I want to be involved in wrestling. I know I want to be involved in the WWE, and I know I have a place here. I just don’t know where it is exactly. Maybe it’s still in the ring, maybe it’s not. I don’t know,” Kevin Owens said.

“I think for the next year and a half, my focus is just on enjoying everything I do as much as possible. There’s not really a worry about winning a title or main-eventing WrestleMania or any of that stuff anymore, which are the dreams that everybody has because I’ve been so blessed, and I’ve gotten to do all of that. So I just want to have fun, and I want to give people fun times to remember me by. Whether this is the end for my wrestling, I don’t know, and I don’t want to sound dramatic, I don’t want to say this is a retirement speech or anything because I might still be wrestling for 10 years. I have no idea. My thought process right now is just to try to enjoy the next year and a half as much as I possibly can because I don’t know what’s on the other side. That’s really all I’m worrying about.”

Goodness, what does that statement mean? Could KO become a part-timer, focusing on working in WWE for special events and the weeks around them instead of a full 52-week calendar year? Or could he instead sign with a promotion like AEW that doesn't really do house shows, or more drastically yet, soft-retire from the sport and only perform a dozen or so shows a year in addition to promotional appearances? Fans will have to keep an eye on this one moving forward, as it's certainly a storyline to watch.

Kevin Owens discusses what's so special about wrestling in Canada.

While Kevin Owens is trying to take things a day at a time as he works through the final year and a half of his WWE contract, something far more pressing is The Fed's forthcoming return to Canada, with a full-on tour set to kick off just after SummerSlam.

Discussing what it means to return to his home country for another series of shows, even if he may or may not be healthy enough to perform on them, elsewhere in his interview with the Toronto Sun, KO explained just how much love he has for Canada and just how much love Canada has for KO, WWE, and wrestling in general.

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“I’ve tried to explain this to other wrestlers, I’ve tried to explain it to management even, and they don’t really quite grasp it, but if you go to the U.S. and you’re in whatever state – let’s say you’re in Minneapolis and there’s somebody from Minnesota – fans react to the hometown guy, and they get a good reaction, but it’s not like Canada,” Owens said.”In Canada, if you’re from Quebec, you’re from Ontario, you’re from Manitoba… it doesn’t matter. You show up anywhere in Canada, whether it be in B.C. or Saskatchewan or anywhere, the crowd will go nuts like you’re a hometown guy. We’re just like one big hometown. And if you watch the shows, you feel that. Me and Sami got amazing receptions in Montreal, but we got them In Ottawa, we got them in Winnipeg, we got them in Calgary. We get them in Vancouver, we get them everywhere. And it’s not just us, any Canadian. It’s unlike anything else.

“The closest I could compare it to is when we’ve gone to Japan, and I’ve seen people react to Shinsuke Nakamura over there. It’s the same kind of thing. He might not be from that town, but when he shows up in Japan, he’s from everywhere, and that’s the coolest. That’s the coolest feeling. It’s just so great. Going back to Canada is always so exciting for us because of that.”

After being famously left off the Elimination Chamber card while his on-again, off-again tag team partner was given his WrestleMania moment in Montreal, Owens will likely be afforded a hero's welcome whether he's able to wrestle or not. Still, if he can get back in the ring from a rib injury suffered – at least from a Kayfabe standpoint – at the hands of The Judgment Day, the timing feels right for KO to get the sort of cheers typically reserved for Zayn and Seth Rollins.