All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star Kenny Omega was recently interviewed on the Jay and Dan show for TSN to promote his upcoming documentary. During the interview, Omega talked about his run as a professional wrestler in Japan, and his decision to go to AEW as opposed to joining WWE.
Here are the highlights (Transcription credit should go to @JonFuentesMMA for Wrestlezone.com):
What would’ve happened to his career if he didn’t go to Japan:
It’d be over. That’d be ballgame. I don’t know what I’d be doing. I was at a crossroads at one point, I was really into mixed martial arts (MMA), I was competing in jiu-jitsu – locally, within Manitoba, and I really enjoyed it. But there was something – I felt there was something inside of me that still wanted to be a performer.
When I was competing in jiu-jitsu and when I was sparring, I wanted to be entertaining. I wanted to put on a show for everyone, I hated winning by points in my matches. I hate when I felt that my matches would be boring. So I thought I’d give it one more kick of the can, so when I went out – it was supposed to be my farewell tour in the United States. I got scouted and went to Japan for my first trip. The documentary kind of covers a lot of that.
Things have come full circle. I had this super long career in Japan. I thought at first I was going to be in Japan for one month, and that turned into over 10 years. Then I had thought, “Okay, I’m going to end my career in Japan.” But now there’s this whole new big opportunity with AEW wrestling, and I’m taking my craft and my unique style of wrestling to North America again. And I’m excited about that too.
Why he never chose to join WWE:
I actually – well I had a small little stint in WWE and their farming system. It was called Deep South Wrestling. Right now, current day fans will probably relate that as NXT. And, it just wasn’t for me. I learned a lot, there was a lot of things that helped me take the next step after I left WWE. But I had always felt that whenever I had full creative control over my own person and my own ideas that I could really be the true me and the real me and show my full potential.
I was actually heavily considering going there earlier in the year. But AEW, of course, this new promotion that we’ve got going, that just seemed right for me. And I always get really excited at the idea of having full creative control and just doing new things, man. You know what I mean?
There’s sometimes a job where you have to really conform to a certain system, or you have to perform to a certain standard, or in a certain way, or people want to manage you and then micro-manage you. And this is a situation where, “Okay, you’re gonna be part of this multi-million dollar, billion dollar company, and we’re giving you the ball. So just give us Kenny Omega.” And to me, that’s exciting, as a performer, so I thought that was probably what was best for me as a performer.
