277 days is a very long time, AEW fans. That's almost 100 days longer than a K-12 school year, longer than Major League Baseball's regular season, and long enough for a baby to go from a dream to reality. That figure is also the length of time between Kenny Omega's loss to “Hangman” Adam Page at Full Gear and his return on the House of the Dragon-sponsored episode of AEW Dynamite, with a number of surgeries, setbacks, and false starts in-between.

That's right, with “Hanger” refusing to accept the Young Bucks' offer to reunite the “Hung Bucks” for a right and proper run at the AEW World Trios Championships, Matt and Nick combed through their Rolodex, placed a few calls, and had their requests answered by none other than “The Cleaner,” reforming the trio that originally formed the idea behind the launch of AEW. They didn't have to wrestle with Brandon Cutler, didn't have to call “Insert Wrestler X from Twitter here,” and suddenly find themselves the favorites to win the belts Tony Khan was holding off on introducing until his top guy was ready to rumble once more.

Friends, The Elite – the trio, not the faction – are back, and the rest of AEW had better take note. Why? Well, to paraphrase Jim Ross, because “business just picked up.”

Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks are back and baby face-ier than ever in AEW.

When Brandon Cutler walked to the ring with The Young Bucks for their main event bout against La Faccion Ingovernable's Rush, Andrade El Idolo, and Dragon Lee – though, after that ending, is he really? – Tony Khan sowed just a seed of doubt into the minds of fans that maybe, just maybe, Kenny Omega wasn't coming back to AEW after all. Maybe his injuries were too great, maybe he needed just another week to get his body right, or maybe there was another swerve up the booker man's sleeve.

Fortunately, with a single notecard handed from Cutler to Ring Announcer Justin Roberts, those fears were swiftly dashed with a single, exhilarating introduction.

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“And now, he has frankly held an unbelievable amount of singles titles. He is a two-time Never Open Weight Six Man Tag Team Champion, a two-time KOD Six Man Champion. He had the longest reign of 346 days as the AEW World Champion. He is a PWI Top-500 Number One Ranked Wrestler, a Wrestling Observer Wrestler of the Year, a Sports Illustrated Wrestler of the Year. While he sometimes uses the airport in North Carolina, his only go-to candy bar is the Charleston Chew. He weighed in at 224 pounds to wrestle in his first match tonight in 277 days. He is Kenny Omega!”

And just like that, it felt like eight months of anticipation disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Omega, wearing a compression shirt and a bulky brace to protect his shoulder, took to the top of the entrance ramp out of the babyface tunnel flanked by Don Callas and Michael/MT Nakazawa and, after an extended jaunt to the ring, showered with praise from his adoring audience, he finally stepped foot back in an AEW ring for the first time since November of 2021.

The results? Well, they were creatively encouraging.

Call it a nod to his greatest in-ring rival Kazuchika Okada, who lost a step for a while after facing adversity, Omega worked the match with the rust one would expect from a man who hadn't wrestled in nine months and maybe came back a bit too soon. Though his moves did, at times, look fluid enough, with a “Snapdragon Suplex” on each of his opponents certainly drawing massive pops from his adoring legion of “Omegamen and Omegawomen,” but just as often, the proprietor of the Polish Hammer couldn't quite execute a move or struggled to move the way he once did. From a botched “You Cannot Escape” attempt, to a pair of “Terminator Dives” interrupted by grabby hands chopping him down mid-run, Omega's usual smoothness was replaced by a performer viably struggling to recapture his former glory while trying his best not to let his buddies down.

Still, when push came to shove, and The Bucks needed a win, Omega came through in the clutch like his favorite athlete, Michael Jordan – hitting the ugliest “One-Winged Angel” in wrestling history but securing the pin on Dragon Lee nonetheless. While only time will tell if Omega can weather another bout and fight off either his long-time in-ring foe PAC or his long-time internet rival Will Ospreay, none of that seemed to matter to the fans assembled in the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center in Charleston, West Virginia. No, Kenny Omega was back, and that was all that mattered.