Kenny Omega managed to build up his reputation to a high level while competing in Japan, and he’s currently one half of the AEW World Tag Team Champions.
Despite the fact that Omega is currently holding gold in AEW, many fans have been critical of how he’s been booked in All Elite Wrestling.
The former IWGP Heavyweight Champion recently addressed the criticism during an interview with Sporting News, and he noted that he’s currently taking a different path with his career.
“It’s funny because I feel like when people … I could compare it to when your favorite player perhaps gets traded to another team. When your favorite player gets traded to another team, and he’s initially not the top scorer or leading in assists or playing the way that he used to play like he did for the home team, your team, it’s easy to criticize them and say that you made a big mistake, and that you’ll never be the same guy again and that it’s all downhill.
Because I decided to take a different path in my career, because I’m not doing these long, drawn-out 45 (-minute) to one-hour matches in singles competition, it doesn’t mean that I’m not the same guy. This isn’t about tooting my own horn, but it’s like I’m now helping run a company that has live television every Wednesday. I’m part of a very successful tag team with “Hangman” Adam Page, a guy that I have a lot of chemistry with, and I’m existing within a division of guys that are amongst the top of all the tag teams on all of the planet and showing that it takes more than just having a good long singles match to be called the best in the world.”
Omega went on to say that the truly be considered one of the best in the world you have to be a good tag team wrestler, and you have to be able to appeal to the non-wrestling fan.
“You got to be a good tag team wrestler. You have to be a good six-man tag team wrestler. You have to be good at your gimmick matches. You have to be able to appeal to the non-wrestling fan. So, I’m not only proud of sure, “The Best Bout Machine” version of Kenny Omega that had the wrestlers wrestling matches the 60-minutes classics with (Kazuchika) Okada (in New Japan Pro Wrestling). I’m just as proud of that as I am with my mixed tag team with Riho (former AEW women’s champion) as a tag team partner. I’m just as proud of those matches as I am as the lights out match with Jon Moxley.
In ways, this is all me in my creative peak. I mean, I’m talking about my storyline with Kota Ibushi. I don’t know if you call that “The Best Bout Machine” Kenny Omega or not. But to me, that’s something different. It’s these layers of these things that that go into making what I think makes a true best in the world — not just one guy that has the same kind of match over and over and over again. Because I do not have that same match over and over again, does that not make me just as good?”
How do you feel about Kenny Omega’s AEW run so far?
