Kenny Omega Fires Back Against Critics
Kenny Omega has some strong thoughts about people who criticize his promo ability.
There was a time in his career when former AEW & IWGP World Champion Kenny Omega was known as the world’s “Best Bout Machine.” That’s because Omega was known for having some of the greatest matches all over the world whether it was with Kazuchika Okada, Chris Jericho, Will Ospreay or somebody else.
As an AEW Executive Vice President, Kenny Omega is seen as a leader in the company, but unfortunately, he’s been dealing with diverticulitis for several months. Kenny Omega may be opting for surgery due to the pain he’s been in, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.
While he’s away from the ring, Omega has been streaming on Twitch and started up a new stream on March 29th when he decided to talk about doing wrestling promos. Since Omega is so good in the ring, perhaps some fans might not think as highly about his promos. However, Kenny feels proud of what he does when given a chance to talk.
“Everyone’s wondering, Kenny, ‘Why is Kenny so bad at promos? He doesn’t have promo game. He needs to cut a promo. That’s all I care about.’ Shut the f**k up!… Jesus Christ.”
“You’re trying to talk about a guy who sold 45,000-seaters with my storytelling? You’re trying to tell me I don’t know how to tell stories? Because I don’t have a yelling promo voice? Yeah? You tell me and then you’re gonna say, oh well, The Rock sold more. Of course he f**king did. He’s The Goddamn Rock and you know what? I’m not f**king bad myself. I try my best.”
“Honestly though, guys, when I wanna tell a story and I have a way to tell it, I’ll tell it in my ways. That’s all there is to it and maybe if something that I’ve done isn’t exciting or my American-style promos just aren’t doing it for you, well, I got news for ya, because I don’t care. I don’t care. It sucks. Hey, I got out there feeling like, man, what am I even doing out here? Why am I even wasting my Goddamn time?”
Kenny Omega Believes His Promos Do Sell The Matches
A promo in wrestling is done to try to build up the match. They are essentially there to try to convince the audience to pay their hard-earned money to check out the match between whoever is doing promos about having a match. Kenny Omega would go on to talk more about that as well as his AEW World Title reign.
“You can make of it what you will. You can make of it what you will. Say bad things, troll me, whatever, criticize, it doesn’t make a difference to me. It really doesn’t, so… and you know what? You guys actually on me a little bit about the promo thing, hey, it might even inspire me a little bit to care so… No, no, no, promo slander is absolutely allowed.”
“It’s just like, if you guys are gonna say, ‘Hey, I didn’t like a promo’ or, ‘You don’t know how to cut promos’, number one, what’s the purpose of a promo? Of course it’s to sell a match and if you’re wondering and if you look at the records, the records will indicate that I have done my fair share of trying to sell matches in my own way. I have a promo style and cadence and speech and do I use buzzwords in the same way that other people do? Maybe no, maybe it’s just my own thing, I don’t know.”
“But, all I do know is that when the performance of a promo or the performance of speaking hinges on the success of a matchup or wrestling card, I’m gonna do what I can to make sure that I sell (the) card and I feel like, you know, when I was champion in AEW and that’s — jeez, that’s going so far back — I felt like I did a really good job and I’m not one to hang my hat on numbers, things like that.”
“I don’t wrestle for ratings. I want people to feel something when I perform and if the people who are watching that are tuned in, they care and it’s not just popcorn wrestling or it’s like, okay, I’m watching it for a second and then it’s out of my mind, then I feel like I’m doing my duty as a professional wrestler, spreading the message of how powerful and how beautiful wrestling can be and for the numbers during my run and segments to top over a million and to grow, even in moments when it was just wrestling.”
As for when Kenny Omega might return to the ring, there is no official timetable for his comeback, but AEW Owner Tony Khan is confident that Omega will return at some point.