Kenny Omega’s 2022 was not what you would call a banner year for the former AEW World Champion. With his run as the “Belt Collector” officially done and a small mountain of needed surgeries compounding, leading to over half a year away from the ring and a missed spot at the Pay-Per-View virtually made for him, Forbidden Door, Omega returned to AEW in the lead-up to All Out with a desire to chase the new AEW World Trios Championships with his best pals, the Young Bucks.

Fortunately, that happened; Omega and The Bucks won it all, and AEW fans were all about it… for about an hour and a half, then CM Punk cut his now-infamous media scrum promo, and by the end of the night, all four men, plus Ace Steele, were suspended indefinitely. While The Elite eventually rebounded, with Omega and The Bucks losing to Death Triangle at Full Gear before eventually winning the straps in a Best of Seven series that concluded in January of 2023, it’s hard to look back at 2022 as anything other than a waste of one of Omega’s prime years.

But what did Omega think about that weird period from August through All Out 2022? Fortunately, he made an appearance on The Sessions with Renee Paquette and discussed just that.

“I felt that, I did the math on it, and I think in 11 years, maybe more, the most time I’d taken off at one point in time was 17 days for my knee surgery,” Omega said. “So, to have all of these injuries accumulate and to get to a point where, yeah, I could figure out ways to do what I needed to do in the ring, but I thought, ‘man, we are up to multiple procedures that I need to get done.’”

When asked what all he had to get done, Omega ran off the laundry list.

“So I had to get both of my knees done, I had to get a shoulder done, I had to get my septum fixed, and then I did a stomach hernia, so there was a lot. So knowing that I had to get all of those things done, it felt like minor surgeries, it felt like it, but I ended up being out for about, like, eight months, but I felt that the company was in, like, a fantastic position and the story that I was able to tell with ‘Hangman’ was one that I was very proud of and I felt that the people were behind him and I was happy that we were heading forward in a direction that didn’t really require me, so I was able to get this stuff taken care of. Then I felt like eight months had passed and it was kind of like the gif of the dude walking in with the pizza boxes when the whole room’s on fire. And I didn’t get it, I was like, ‘what’s with this strange atmosphere? What’s with this strange aura? Why does something feel so ominous?’ And the next thing you knew, there was more stuff happening.”

More stuff did very much happen, Mr. Omega, including the biggest off-stage interaction in AEW history to this date, the Brawl Out. Fortunately, Paquette decided to ask her co-worker about that interaction, and he was surprisingly candid about the interaction.

Kenny Omega gave his biggest information yet on the AEW Brawl Out.

Discussing the Brawl Out further, Omega noted that this fight wasn't simply a few teammates getting into a tiff because things got heated, which happens in all sports, but a completely different interaction since billions of dollars are on the line.

“There are things, especially now when you’re in a multi-million billion dollar industry where there are sponsorships on the line, TV deal is on the line. It’s not like high school football,” Omega said. “It’s not, you know, a little tiff that you might have with someone on your fellow, amateur wrestling team or whatever, or maybe someone held a submission too long in jiu-jitsu training. It’s not that; these things shouldn’t even be happening.”

“It’s a shame that the general public and a lot of people aren’t ever going to know what went down, and how it could have been prevented or how it could have, you know, ended differently. That’s just sort of how things go again when it’s a big business operation.”

“I don’t think anyone is happy that it happened, or is proud that it happened, or anything like that. I think across the board; everyone thinks that was a terrible situation that was unnecessary. It’s sort of like, ‘Hey, we know this thing happened. We heard this thing happened. It’s all over the dirt sheets. Why don’t we know what happened?’ And it’s like, we’re kind of sworn to secrecy.”

“We can’t say anything, legally. So that was the poopy part where I was like, well, why doesn’t anyone tell us what’s happening? And then you’re forced to form your own opinion or to come up with your own theory as to what exactly happened. What’s important was no one was seriously injured emerging from that, and I’m so thankful for that. We’ve moved on with life, I’m completely fine, it doesn’t dictate what I do, what I say, I’m sure the Bucks are in the same boat. I can’t speak to the other parties; hopefully, they are doing well, and I mean that.”

Does Omega actually wish CM Punk and company well? Would he work a trios program with “The Best in the World” and FTR like Dax Harwood has endorsed? Or will the duo simply go their separate ways, either in AEW or away from it? Either way, good on Omega to own up to what went down and explain his feelings for the wrestling world to see.