Kenny Omega reveals details of major issues faced by AEW due to no crowd
AEW Executive Vice President Kenny Omega has been working in multiple roles in the company. While he is known mostly for his in-ring performances, Kenny Omega fulfils several critical roles backstage.
During a recent interview on Wrestling Observer Radio, Kenny Omega talked about the issues that AEW wrestlers face when they wrestle without a crowd.
Please provide h/t to Sportskeeda if you use any quote and link this article.
Kenny Omega on the issue with working without a crowd in AEW
Kenny Omega talked about the moments in the matches where there are bumps that need to be soaked in for a little while before continuing. He pointed out that for moments like those and others, it was essential to have an audience. Kenny Omega went on to say that wrestlers just had to predict how crowds would react to the moments instead.
"There are those fluke scenarios when a bump looks just gross, but the guy you're working with is absolutely fine, and the audience gasps. That's one of those moments when you take that moment and let it sizzle. We don't have that, we don't have the luxury of that. We just have to have belief in what we are doing in the ring, and what we see and what we feel. We have to predict how the people watching at home are going to react to it."
"So, you have to believe, either beforehand going out there what moments are going to hit, or you have to really be sensitive to your surroundings and just know in the situation and adjust as those moments happen. That's because you have no crowd, no real crowd anyway, to really give you that energy, to tell you what you did was special, even though maybe that was not a moment that you planned for."
Readers can also check out Sportskeeda's interview with Kenny Omega here.
Kenny Omega talked about the issues surrounding the big matches in AEW. AEW has been a part of several main event matches in the company, be it with PAC, 'Hangman' Page, Pentagon Jr, or others.
"The bad part of that is for a lot of big matches, you will often get those big moments that you didn't plan for but work out really well. Those moments allow you to breathe and build an atmosphere even more so, so that you can exponentially grow the match to the level where you need to and switch gears when you need to. Sometimes you might get a gear switch before you plan on having one."
"When that does happen, it allows you to sort of time out and feel out when you can feel out when to change gears again. Now, without that energy, or that sort of false energy from the boys, you don't really know what's a real reaction and what isn't. You just have to believe in yourself and believe in what you are doing and kind of guess. I think it really takes someone who has had years and years and years and years of experience to really guess right, nine times out of ten."
While AEW has brought back a partial audience, there's still a long way to go before a full audience can return to regular shows in AEW.