DETROIT –– Oct. 28, 2002 –– Christopher Nowinski wasn’t supposed to be back on RAW yet. “What was supposed to be six weeks turned out to be two and a half,” he said.

He was referring to surgery to remove a benign tumor from his left cheekbone area, near his ear. The operation was Sept. 24, and recovery time was estimated at six weeks.

But Nowinski returned to action on the Oct. 14 episode of RAW. The scar from the five-inch incision that the doctor made around his ear is already virtually invisible.

“(The doctor) said be careful,” Nowinski said. “But he said the odds are that it can’’t get any worse.” The Harvard graduate was actually given the “green light” on Oct. 10, meaning he had only four days to train before his return match. But he figured his enthusiasm to return to the ring would more than compensate for any ring rust.

Two weeks after returning, he said he hasn’t had anything other than ordinary discomfort. “Every once in a while, it swells up,” he said. “They had to go pretty deep into my face.” By early November, he should be completely recovered.

And what about the tumor itself? Nowinski said a portion of it was sent to a lab for testing, and he kept the rest. The reason? William Regal wanted to see it, and he had the opportunity to do so today. “I just wanted to see what it looked like,” Regal said. “I’’ve never actually seen one. I’ve never had one, so I’ve never seen one. It was just this red object. I was hoping it’d be something disgusting, like the Elephant Man’’s armpit, but it wasn’t.”

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