Kenny Omega Talks Comeback, Facing MJF At AEW Dynasty, And Being The ‘God Of Pro Wrestling’

Rob Wolkenbrod: After everything you went through with your health, did your perspective or relationship with wrestling change at all in your time away?

Kenny Omega: Yeah, I would say that it did. It really focused a new energy into what I wanted to do if I were to return to wrestling in somewhat of a healthy state.

When you feel like there’s a clock ticking and there’s not much time left, or at any point something may just show up and say it’s over, it’s done, you want to be, if you can, satisfied with how things end. A lot of times you don’t get to choose how things end. So as best as you can, you just want to be proud and happy with how you’ve lived your life up until that point.

So I tried to really take a step back and think about what it is about wrestling now for me and my career, where I’m at, what makes me happy, what makes me feel accomplished, and what I may be good at that I can pass along or leave behind.

So there’s been a lot more thought toward that. And I do feel like there’s not so much of a fear of something coming back and me having to step back permanently. I feel like I’ve conducted my business and myself in a way where I could be proud if I have to forcibly take a step back.

Wolkenbrod: Did it take time to rebuild that confidence when you returned?

Omega: I’m actually shocked in myself that I started to do singles matches at all. It was really difficult. I didn’t want to feel like, when you step in the ring with me, there’s a possibility something may go off the rails and the match may end out of nowhere because of my medical condition, or because of something underlying that we didn’t know about, or that may still be there.

So I really thought maybe the best-case scenario for me would have been to stick to multi-man matches or tags, where if I needed to duck out for a second, or even the entire match, there was that option available to me.

It was difficult to get the toes wet, then go a little bit further, and then feel like, let’s try this singles match. Let’s see if I can exist in this world again.

For my return match, which was a singles match in the Tokyo Dome, I felt great. But that was my first performance in a long time, and I had sort of built it up in my head like, this could be it. This could be the last one ever. So let’s just get this over and done with. Let’s make it a performance I can be proud of and be ready to call it a day if we have to.

And yeah, it felt good to the point where it was like, okay, we can keep going. But soon after that, there were a lot of problems that came up, and it was just too soon. I started to wonder, did we miss something? Is there something more to this? Were the tests inconclusive?

But they told me, look, what you went through and the recovery process you had was really expedited. You came back quicker than we thought, and we didn’t expect you to be doing what you’re doing to the level that you’re doing it until maybe two years later. And this was about eight months.

So that helped a lot to hear. I felt like, okay, I can still take my time with this and work myself back to a place where I feel comfortable again.

And of course, there are always going to be changes. As you age, as injuries compile, things just don’t work as well as they once did. So aside from the diverticulitis and post-surgical stuff, there are all the usual bumps and bruises too.

So I needed to find a way to increase my longevity anyway. It became a bit of a mental exercise to figure out what I can do to stay in the ring a little bit longer without looking like I’m just in there to hang out and steal a spot. I still wanted to contribute, so that part was important.

Wolkenbrod: Do you feel like you’re at a comfortable place in the ring now? And do you feel like you can be in a comfortable place, let’s say, for 12, 18, 24 months, or if you have any kind of timeline in your head right now?

Omega: I think that’s the beauty of it. And going back to your first question, how long did it take before I felt comfortable, I think when I used that time to reflect and come up with a game plan, I didn’t want to have a very specific expectation.

I don’t want to say zero expectation, but I didn’t want to put a strict timeline on it. Because if you don’t reach the expectation you place on yourself, especially when it comes to time, you might start to feel regret or resentment toward whatever stopped you from reaching that.

So I just try to focus on while I’m here, while I feel good, while I feel like I can still do this, everything that I do, I want to contribute in a positive way to our business at AEW and hopefully to professional wrestling as a whole.

Wolkenbrod: You just had those two grueling matches with Swerve Strickland on Dynamite that easily could have main-evented pay-per-views. What were your biggest takeaways from working with him?

Omega: Well, a lot of people probably didn’t know, but Swerve and I had a little bit of contact on the indies, going back quite a bit. I was in New Japan at the time, so this was before AEW became a thing. So I’d known Swerve a little bit, but I hadn’t known this new version of him, the Swerve that has become a megastar, the Swerve that is now absolutely a heavyweight.

The Swerve I knew before was a much different individual, both personality-wise and in stature. So to stand in the ring with him now, I was like, yeah, you’re a big guy. Like, wow, you’re almost dwarfing me. What’s going on here?

Not that I’m a big guy either, but it was such a departure from what I remembered.

To be able to mix it up with him on an even playing field in a singles capacity, and to be proud of that work too, I was really happy with both of those matches. I’m glad that someone who deserves all the praise he gets was able to keep that momentum, and that I didn’t cause him to falter in the stride he’s found himself in.

Like I’ve said, I don’t want to be the reason something bad happens in AEW. I want to always build and contribute positively.

So to be able to do those matches with Swerve and put my best foot forward in performances I’m just proud of, not as a diverticulitis survivor, but just in general, that meant a lot.

And I do feel like we’ve built something where this is a relationship we can go back to. Part three, part four, part five, who knows. But I feel like we’ve got a chemistry in the ring that’s a little different.

So if we do touch on it again, I think it can be just as good as the first two, and we can give fans something really special. I’m very proud of those matches and looking forward to the future.

Wolkenbrod: Tony Khan mentioned in a recent interview that you played a role in creating AEW’s early pay-per-views. What was that creative process like when the company was still finding its identity?

Omega: When you’re the new kid in town and the new show on the scene, you don’t want to be a complete carbon copy of everything else that’s already out there.

I’ve been up and down the indies throughout Canada, before moving to the United States and then Japan, so I’ve seen the model of what a lot of independent promotions do. They either rely heavily on former WWE legends, or they do a combination of that with one-day tournaments or big battle royals where everyone wrestles multiple times in a day.

I just didn’t want something like that where there’s no way for it to become self-sufficient.

We needed something different. We needed a way to create our own identity. We needed our own pay-per-views that people could tie directly to AEW as a brand.

If you think about other promotions like WWE, when you hear Royal Rumble or WrestleMania, you know exactly what that is. It’s tied to their identity.

With AEW, we had this image early on of being the company that took a gamble on independent wrestling and on stars who might not have been on American television. That became a theme for a lot of our early pay-per-views like Double or Nothing and All In.

And honestly, we were just goofs. We came up with ideas like Fyter Fest, which was a parody of Fyre Fest, and we just had fun with it. We felt like if we were having fun, like with Being The Elite, that would translate and fans would have fun too.

For us, it was always about fun, but fun can mean a lot of things. It doesn’t have to just be comedy. It can be intense, violent, and emotional. That allowed us to create a variety show where you can have all of that, along with traditional wrestling and larger-than-life characters.

That was the goal. Start from scratch, create something new, and build stars tied to AEW. Without AEW, maybe we don’t know someone like Darby Allin, Orange Cassidy, or even MJF.

Wolkenbrod: You’ve referred to yourself as the “God of Pro Wrestling,” and we’ve seen others carry titles like “The Icon,” “The Deadman,” or “The American Dream.” In your mind, what does it take to earn, and truly live up to, a moniker like that?

Omega: As someone who really appreciates comedy, if you’ve seen any of the BTE stuff, I’m not shy about making an a** of myself or using self-deprecating humor.

So it’s very difficult for me to go from that world into one where people call me things like the God of Professional Wrestling. Those are highly complimentary monikers, and I’d feel so out of place just saying that about myself.

If I were a heel, maybe it could be interesting or fun. But when fans say it, and you feel the weight behind it, those feelings are real.

It becomes a heavy responsibility. Sometimes it feels like a burden, because it’s hard to see myself the way they see me. But at the same time, I never want to disappoint anyone.

Coming back from diverticulitis, I knew I wasn’t anywhere near what people remember as the old Kenny Omega. I had to think about how I was going to handle that.

I didn’t want to hide my weaknesses. It’s just part of life. We get older, things break down. But I didn’t want to admit defeat until I exhausted every option. That meant changing my training, diet, recovery, everything. It’s still a work in progress, especially on the road, trying to stay healthy and perform at a high level.

If the championship situation goes the way I hope, I know I need to be ready for that responsibility. We have a young roster that’s willing to make sacrifices.

If I never become champion again, I’d still be happy with my career. But I do feel like there’s at least one more run left in me if the time is right. And for me, the time does feel right.

Wolkenbrod: As you go after the AEW World Championship against MJF, what are you expecting this time around compared to your 2023 match?

Omega: So, it is a very different dynamic this time around, because our first match together was right before things got really bad for me. It’s not a situation where I look back, for example, like with my previous matches with Ospreay, where I was feeling great for both of those first matches.

So how would a potential third match look right now, with how good I’m feeling now? I think it’s a different basis of comparison. Before, it felt like I was barely holding on. I didn’t know what was wrong, but I knew something was wrong. And now it’s like I’ve gotten over that thing that I was on the precipice of being struck down by, and now I’m at the tail end of that fight back from it, where I really can start to look a little bit like my old self in the ring.

Now when I train and put that effort into my training, my diet, and all that stuff, you see the results. It’s not like I’m taking one step forward and two steps back, which is what it really felt like for a long time when I had those issues.

So it’s not that the old Kenny Omega was better and now this is just an older, more beat-up version. It’s actually the older version, but arguably much more healthy than the one that had the first match with MJF.

So I would say it’s less of a concern as to how I’ve changed or grown as a competitor. It’s more about how MJF has grown.

I do feel like as a champion, you have a responsibility not only to be the face of the company, but to be an inspiration to those around you to want that belt just as much as you do, and to carry yourself with respect, whether you’re a babyface or a heel. There’s a lot of pride that goes into carrying that belt, even for someone like MJF. There’s an honor and a sense of pride there, and you can tell it means everything to him.

So you really have to ask, did he become complacent at any point from then until now? Did he feel the need to grow, to improve, to evolve? I certainly did, because for me it was tied to my health and my career. If I didn’t evolve or do something positive for my health, it would have been over.

But has MJF gotten to a point where he feels like he’s the guy, like he’s done this before, and now he’s just getting what he deserves? If that’s the case, maybe he’s the same, or even worse. Because when you lose that hunger, that passion for improvement, that drive to be the best among your peers, you can start to lose your foothold in the industry.

I’ve seen it time and time again. People get comfortable and start to regress as athletes and performers. So, is this current version of MJF one where we see growth, or regression? Is he going to rely more on stall tactics and trickery and less on wrestling, in a place where supposedly the best wrestle? I don’t know.

He’s not necessarily my type of wrestler, but I do understand and appreciate, as an EVP, the value he brings to the table. It’s unquestionable. He can talk, he makes all the promotional appearances, he’s always working, and he thrives on being the center of attention.

So maybe he understands what this moment means. Maybe he understands that every title match is important and that he has to prove he deserves that belt.

And if that pride shows in the performance in the ring, then you can create something special for the fans watching. So that’s my hope. That he feels that responsibility, that he feels that pride, and that with everything I’ve been through combined with whatever pressure he’s feeling, we can create something special from that.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.