Kenny Omega took quite the risk of leaving New Japan Pro-Wrestling to kickstart a new promotion in All Elite Wrestling.
IWGP United States Champion Kenny Omega was a recent guest on the Swerve City Podcast to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about starting up a new national promotion, All Elite Wrestling, Omega admitted there was a lot of fear and doubt taking the jump from New Japan to start All Elite Wrestling.
“Yeah, I mean, there was a lot of fear and a lot of doubts. And I was at a point where my contract was coming up with New Japan. And they really did feel like a home to me, and Japan as a country felt like home to me. So to decide that this is where I was going to commit for the next — foreseeable future. Without knowing if we were going to become a thing. Whether we were going to get a TV deal. Whether even we were going to have a ring, and there’s a point where we didn’t have a ring, but we are going to be a promotion. We’re already booking buildings.
“Like geez, I mean, that’s kind of an easy part of the puzzle to fill because you could buy rings anywhere, but we wanted to have a professional ring, we wanted to have a good setup and all those things. We wanted to look like professionals, and I guess the mission statement was to create an alternative, and some people will say competition. I’ll definitely say alternative because I do think there’s a place for everyone’s wrestling tastes. I’m glad that we can facilitate a certain type of wrestling or a certain type of show that people enjoy watching.
“Or just like to add what we do to their lineup of professional wrestling they consume. So for us to start a promotion for us to just give a place for just incredible talent that wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to show themselves on TV and to showcase what they do and perform their art in front of more people than they maybe would have had a chance to otherwise. That’s the real plus for me, the real big bonus, the real big payoff. Being on TV, of course, is cool. Trying to succeed in America is cool. I’ve really thought I was gonna end my career in Japan, so it was a very unique chapter for me to start.”
Omega went on to talk about the fear that he could be flushing his career with New Japan down the toilet for an unknown in All Elite Wrestling if the company didn’t end up panning out.
“Yeah, I was thinking maybe I’m just flushing it all down the toilet for, like, just an unknown. But as we talked more and more and things kind of came more serious, and things started to materialize right in front of our very eyes. And when I went to that one press conference where I signed right before I went out to talk on the microphone, this really seems like it’s going to be a thing. We had, albeit a short crew, but we had reliable names.
“We had myself, Bucks, Jericho; we knew Mox was coming down. Cody was there. Lucha Brothers just created, you know, we had talent from all around the world. Of course, I was working hard to sign some of the Joshi. I was working hard to — we had, at the time, Strong Hearts, CIMA, T-Hawk, Lindemann, just great guys. I wish we could have them back, by the way, but great guys. So we had a very international roster of great people that were ready, I think to take the next step and to be on TV and to show what made them special.
“So I don’t know, being in that press conference and seeing things kind of coming together and seeing sort of just feeling the organic excitement for the people that were there. I sort of felt like, okay, this is going to be alright. But the thing is, you could have a crowd of like 1,000 people or whatever it was at that press conference. You have to hit around; at the time, they’re asking for five to 600,000 a week. And we’re all in some way we’ve been in front of live audiences. Right.
“Like, imagine being in front of 500,000 people live. It’s a lot of people; it’s like a sea of humanity. And you need to attract at least that many people to make sure you preserve that TV spot. So that was my only fear. Did that many people know us or care about us, or will they care about us? So luckily for us, I guess we pretty much doubled the expectations. We kind of float around like 900, 1 million. But the goal, I guess now, is just to never feel satisfied with that. I think there’s still more people that can appreciate what we do as performers and as athletes as professionals. There’s got to be more than a million people out there that would like what we do.”
READ MORE: Report: Kenny Omega’s AEW Contract Extended Due To Time Missed With Injuries
What do you make of Kenny Omega’s comments? Are you happy that All Elite Wrestling has achieved so much success in such a short period of time? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of the quotes above, please credit the Swerve City Podcast with a link back to this article for the transcription.
