NJPW News: Kenny Omega feels wrestling is becoming a monopoly because of the WWE
In an interview with Uproxx, Kenny Omega spoke about his career in Japan, being the leader of the Bullet Club, his thoughts on WWE, and more. Regarding WWE, Omega expressed fear that the Sports Entertainment giant is making the wrestling business a monopoly.
“It seems as though we’re headed towards a monopoly if I were to speak honestly. WWE is hiring people just to hire them. That’s fine, and I’m happy for whoever’s happy to collect a paycheck from them. A lot of my good friends are now receiving work and receiving money. But sadly, a lot of those people are signing with WWE just to ride the pine. You can’t put all these guys on TV”
He continued, saying
“But as everyone gets picked up, as all these independent promotions have to shut down and close their doors because of WWE scooping everyone up, everyone’s going to lose an option. And that guy you saw for that one tournament, you’re not going to see him anymore. You can’t put him on TV, there’s only so much time.”
Kenny Omega is the definition of a wrestler earning well outside WWE. While he is not an independent wrestler, he can be grouped with the select few indie wrestlers such as The Young Bucks, Colt Cabana, and Alberto Del Rio, who earn “WWE-level money” outside.
The advantage these Superstars face is that they work far lesser dates for a similar amount of money. This is perhaps one of the primary reasons The Young Bucks chose to renew their contracts with Ring Of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling recently.
The Bucks would likely be working 100 dates lesser than what they would in WWE. Not to mention, they have total creative control over their characters and earn well through merchandise as well. They would likely get a higher cut from Prowrestlingtees.com if they were with WWE but they would get a smaller cut out of merchandise sales.
One of the key reasons Omega has stuck to his guns in New Japan and not made a jump over to WWE is that he also holds a huge spot on the NJPW card. On January 4th, he will become the first non-Japanese Superstar to ever main event Wrestle Kingdom. He is set to face Kazuchika Okada in the main event for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
He earned this spot after he won the G1 Climax tournament in 2016, being the first non-Japanese wrestler to do so as well. He took over the spot as the leader of the Bullet Club at the start of the year, when AJ Styles left NJPW for WWE. The co-founder of the Bullet Club Karl Anderson also left NJPW for WWE so Omega got the prime spot as the leader.
He won the IWGP Intercontinental Championship earlier in 2016 as well after Shinsuke Nakamura vacated the title when he left to join the WWE. He lost it four months later to Michael Elgin in a ladder match. However, the departure of the four major stars from NJPW to WWE was a stepping stone and blessing for Omega, who finally began getting a main event push.
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