NJPW News: Kenny Omega opens up about his upcoming IWGP Heavyweight Championship match against Kazuchika Okada
What’s the story?
NJPW superstar Kenny Omega recently spoke with Sports Illustrated regarding his upcoming IWGP Heavyweight Championship match against Kazuchika Okada at this year’s Dominion 6.9 pay-per-view.
The Dominion show, as we know, is arguably NJPW’s second biggest show of the year right behind their annual Wrestle Kingdom event and this year’s Dominion 6.9 also promises to be another astonishing show with several big names already being confirmed for the event.
In case you didn’t know…
At the recently concluded NJPW: Wrestling Dontaku event, ‘The Rainmaker’ Kazuchika Okada defended his IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the 12th successive time against his long-time rival Hiroshi Tanahashi.
This match received a 5 1/2 star rating from The Observer’s Dave Meltzer.
Following Okada’s win, he went on to call out his next challenger Kenny Omega, and agreed to put his Championship belt on the line against ‘The Best Bout Machine’ in a two out of three falls match with no time limit in order to ensure that there is no possibility of a draw between both men as in previous matches between the two.
The heart of the matter
During his interview with Sports Illustrated, Kenny Omega opened up about the significance of his IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at this year’s Dominion PPV, as he prepares to go head-to-head against his arch-rival Kazuchika Okada for the fourth time in an NJPW ring.
According to Omega, he believes that this forthcoming IWGP Heavyweight Championship match between him and ‘The Rainmaker’ is going to be a matter of pride for current champion Kazuchika Okada, whereas, as far as Omega is concerned, this match is the opportunity of a lifetime for him.
The former IWGP US Heavyweight Champion is once again fortunate enough to be in a position again where he can say that this is indeed the biggest match of his career.
“I, as Kenny Omega the character and the person, realize I am not the person who was rightfully in line for this title shot. The reason I’ve got this opportunity is that Okada has made his rounds and defeated everyone, sometimes twice over, but he’s realized there is a blemish in his record. That’s the draw from last year’s Dominion and I also beat him in the G1. You can make the excuse that he was beaten up, bloodied, and fatigued from the schedule of the G1, but then so was I. So he has no excuse. I wrestled all of the same opponents, we were in the same block.”
What’s next?
Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada are scheduled to square off against each other on the 9th of June, 2018 at the Osaka-jō Hall.
Despite Omega’s on-going issues with Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and the rest of the Bullet Club, ‘The Best Bout Machine’ will be absolutely focused in order to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Title for the first time in his career.
Author’s Take
Kenny Omega and Kazuchika Okada are once again going to steal the show and put up another classic match, which will go down as another historic bout between both men and that right there is a fact.
Also, personally, I hope that Omega finally wins the big one and gets his hands on the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the very first time in his career.
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