"Sometimes people have ulterior motives" - Kenny Omega reveals why he stayed away from the AEW title picture
When Kenny Omega first signed with AEW in 2019, it was expected that he would be in the title picture from the very start. However, this was not the case as Omega got nowhere near the title for most of the first year.
Kenny Omega instead was involved in the Tag Team title picture with Adam 'Hangman' Page. At the time, the fans started questioning why Omega was not being given a solid singles run by AEW.
Kenny Omega was recently interviewed by Yahoo! Sports, where he talked about various aspects of his time with AEW. He specifically spoke about why he and The Young Bucks stayed away from the top titles of the company for the first year.
“You see that when you’re right on the inside — especially since it’s an entertainment industry — that people who have a lot of power in the industry are also doing something in front of the camera in the industry. You start to see that sometimes people have ulterior motives. It’s very tough to be aligned with everyone and follow one vision, one goal."
"The Young Bucks and myself, we have built our entire careers by being selfless people and willing to help others. It’s really been so rewarding for us as athletes, to see the best wrestlers in the world and find out who the good people are in professional wrestling. I think that’s a reason why AEW comes across as something very different than what we’ve seen in the wrestling business for quite some time,” said Kenny Omega.
"I was lucky" - Kenny Omega on the importance of storytelling in AEW
Kenny Omega spoke about how lucky he was compared to other wrestlers, given his background and popularity in wrestling. As a result of that, he could do more of what needed to be done in the wrestling world.
“For me, I was lucky where we had a fan base where people were a little familiar with my background and what I had done in New Japan and otherwise. I’ve always been very confident in my ability to do whatever needs to be done in the world of pro wrestling, whether it be in the ring or some other means of storytelling."
Omega said that it was important for him not to give the picture that he would be involved in the AEW Championship scene from the very beginning. In fact, he saw it as the opportunity to introduce the other younger and lesser-known wrestlers to the larger audience.
“The last thing I wanted to do was to monopolize the upper echelon of AEW and then when it’s my time to step down there’s no one there ready to take the mantle, even though we have the talent that is more than capable to do so. Year one and change, I just really hope that we got to know some of the very talented people we have on our roster. Had we had not done that, I would have thought for sure I would have failed as someone with a vision to show just how great our pro wrestling is.”
Currently, Kenny Omega is the AEW Champion and has fostered a relationship between IMPACT Wrestling and AEW, with Don Callis and The Good Brothers often making their way to the company. Since the second year of AEW, Kenny Omega has led the company in quite an unpredictable direction as the top titleholder.