Kenny Omega Talks Wrestling In Hometown On AEW Dynamite

The pressure is on for Kenny Omega as he wrestles in front of friends and family in Winnipeg.

As AEW rolls through Manitoba on Wednesday night, Omega will return to his first stomping grounds. He wrestled there many years ago while still a rookie and now he comes back “home” with feelings of both excitement and a sense of reflection on how far he’s come.

Ahead of tomorrow night’s Dynamite, Kenny Omega spoke to the Winnipeg Free Press about wrestling in Manitoba.

When talking about his past, he mentioned that he wrestled mostly in stipulation matches (i.e. hardcore matches, ladder matches, etc.) a few times per week and made very little money while doing so.

“I was elated, unbelievably excited to look in my piggy bank after a month’s worth of (wrestling), which at that time was two shows a week, and a lot of those were ladder matches, hardcore matches, and all sorts of things, and see that I had twenty dollars… It didn’t even work out to five dollars a match.”

As for looking to the future, Kenny Omega sees this Winnipeg show as the next step in AEW’s expansion into international markets.

“When AEW became a thing, we always thought ‘Boy, wouldn’t it be cool if this really was an international wrestling product.’ And not only international by how you consume it via television or internet, but I really wanted to do live shows all around the world.

For one of our first international shows, and one of our first Canadian shows, to be in my hometown is a really cool thing and I’m sure Chris [Jericho] has a very similar feeling towards it.”

Tomorrow night, Kenny Omega will take on another wrestling Winnipegger in Chris Jericho in the two’s first match since NJPW wrestle Kingdom 12.