ROSEMONT, Ill. -- The good news backstage at Tuesday's SmackDown! taping was that the superstars got to see Rhyno for the first time in weeks. The bad news was they or anyone else won't be seeing him in the ring for months to come.

Rhyno, who underwent spinal surgery on Nov. 2, drove from his home in Michigan to visit friends at the Allstate Arena. Fitted with a foam neck brace, he got to say hello to his fellow superstars. 

Oh, I feel like a million bucks,Rhyno said sarcastically.  But I have to let everything heal up.  Rhyno said the injury took place over the course of three weeks this fall. He said there wasn't one particular incident that caused the injury. He began to feel pain in his neck, and it grew progressively worse until he could no longer compete. 

Rhyno joined the list of superstars who have undergone fusion surgery on their spinal column, a list which includes Stone Cold Steve Austin, Chris Benoit (who hopes to return in the spring), X-Pac, Steven Richards and others. The procedure involved removing Rhyno's C6 and C7 vertebrae and replacing them with a bone from his hip and a steel plate. 

To say the least, Rhyno said, it's a painful surgery and recovery period. He is still very limited physically at this point, staying fit mainly by walking and doing cardiovascular workouts. But he cannot run or do anything which would jar the repaired area of his spinal column.  I still have several months ahead of me as far as everything healing.  Rhyno said. So I don't have a good time in mind. They say it's usually a year or so. It's going to take a lot of time, but I'm not going to push it because I don't want to go through anything like this again.

But there is encouragement for Rhyno. On the night he visited the arena, Austin and another superstar who overcame a serious neck injury -- Kurt Angle -- looked as powerful as ever during the show. 

Oh, yeah, it's very encouraging, Rhyno said. Guys who have had that -- it's good to see that light at the end of the tunnel. Unfortunately a number of guys have had to go through the same thing, because it is very painful, but it's good to see that you can come through it.

Rhyno also dropped by on his old friends at Sunday's non-televised World Wrestling Federation event in Detroit. But there were friends he wanted to see who weren't at the Detroit show, so he got in his car and made the long trek to Chi-Town. Not everybody was in Detroit, so I figured, 'Oh, Chicago, I've done that drive a thousand times. Why not make it a thousand and one?' And the doctor said it was OK, so I came.

And, it turns out, it was a trip worth the effort. 

Oh, it's great to see everybody, he said. It puts a smile on my face. And that's very needed after this kind of surgery.