"The show was an incredible memory for me" - Kenny Omega recalls dream match with former WWE champion
Former AEW world champion Kenny Omega recently looked back on his dream match with top AEW star and former WWE champion Bryan Danielson.
The two men wrestled to a 30-minute draw at the Grand Slam edition of AEW Dynamite on September 22, 2021. It was a dream match that was highly anticipated by all corners of the wrestling industry, and it lived up to the hype, being considered one of the best matches of 2021.
Dave Meltzer has awarded Bryan Danielson vs. Kenny Omega from AEW Dynamite Grand Slam five stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Congratulations.
It was literally them warming up for 30 minutes.
Imagine what they'll get when they actually have a match that gets the time it needs.
Thoughts? https://t.co/yoAlFkLI7G
But what did Kenny Omega think of all of it? Speaking with Dave Meltzer in an in-depth interview for Wrestling Observer Radio, Omega called the match and the occasion a very special moment for him.
“The Arthur Ashe show was an incredible memory for me as well. It was — I had — I don’t wanna call it ‘writing the wrong.’ It wasn’t that at all and I still stand by my first sort of thought process way back in the day when I did a straight-up comedy match with Bryan [Danielson], just for something different. But I had thought our serious match together would have come much sooner after that PWG match. So it’s sort of like, ‘Oh wow, finally we get to do this match that people were sort of expecting out of us’ but now, especially me, I’m far more qualified to give that to people so it was cool for Bryan to trust me with his comeback match in AEW." (H/T Rajah.com)
Omega also thought that he and Bryan had done Tony Khan and the rest of AEW proud with their match.
"So to be trusted with that responsibility when you had Bryan coming back and it’s sort of like, ‘Yeah, take my word for it. I’m ready to go,’ then it’s me, it’s like, ‘Okay, take my word for it. I’m the guy to do it.’ There’s a lot of trust going into that match and I’m glad we delivered but [what] was cooler than feeling like we had done our company and our boss proud was that the fans were just enjoying it as much as we were in the ring so that was a great memory.” (H/T Rajah.com)
The match was highly praised by readers of Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, who voted it the third best wrestling match of 2021.
Kenny Omega will remain on the shelf for the foreseeable future
With Omega being the workaholic that he is, it is understandable to hear that the former AEW world champion was aiming to be back in the wrestling ring a mere three months into his supposed time off.
However, due to various circumstances such as booking appointments, COVID-19 and needing to have his injuries heal properly rather than just temporaily, Omega will be out of action for a little longer than first anticipated.
Catching Tiger Driver ‘98 from Kenny Omega @KennyOmegamanX on Rey Fenix - AEW (01.06.2021) https://t.co/yWvWk0csMM
Are you looking forward to seeing Kenny Omega back in AEW? Let us know in the comments section down below!