AEW's Kenny Omega is not one to hide his outside-the-ring influences from his wrestling persona.
His finisher, the One-Winged Angel, is named after Final Fantasy VII, the V-Trigger is a reference to Street Fighter, and he's worn ring attire inspired by everything from The Terminator to Undertale, Ghostbusters, and even Street Fighter, again. But did you know these influences can occasionally bleed into his match design? It's true, while talking to Renee Paquette on her The Sessions podcast, Omega noted how DC Cartoons, namely Batman: The Animated Series, help him to craft matches for television.
“I was getting matches around 18 minutes to 25-ish,” Omega said. “Then for the big ones, that's anywhere from 30 to 50, to an hour. But the main ones are like 20-ish. So I thought, how can I study for this? How can I improve myself? Can I take nods from anything around me? I began to study weekly cartoons, specifically superhero cartoons. Because an episode lasts about 21 minutes long. There's a beginning, there's a middle, there's an end. The hero gets put into peril at some point. Every week there's probably a new villain featured.”
“For example, Batman cannot fight the Joker every week. It's not always going to be that serious. There's not always going to be that, ‘Oh my goodness, the world may end' moment. Sometimes he has to fight the Riddler. Sometimes he has to fight Mr. Freeze or Clayface. How do you make all those instances, How do you make all of those altercations interesting? How do you make them feel like they mean something? How do you make them different from one another? Sometimes you can elicit other emotions, even though you are supposed to be taken as this incredible superhero. Someone that's larger than life. Someone who is supposed to be one of the best at doing what you do. So I have found that specifically Batman cartoons, Justice League, they really helped a lot.”
Wow, while it may not be the first thing a professional wrestling fan might think of when building a match, shows like Batman: The Animated Series do follow a 21-minute format with a defined beginning, middle, and end, and does prove that some villains don't require the same attention as others. Considering all of the external factors that are weighing Omega down at the moment, it's nice to see that he's trying to have some fun in the ring.
Kenny Omega can't block out all of the external talks about his future.
Elsewhere in the podcast appearance, Omega was asked about all of the rumors that have been swirling about his future and whether or not he could leave AEW for WWE when his contract expires. While Omgea does think about his own career, he also understands that wrestling isn't just about one person, and for the ecosystem to truly work, he needs to help the next generation too.
“Sometimes, the first thing that pops into your mind is probably how you really feel,” Omega said via Fightful. “The first thing that came into my mind wasn't a title, wasn't some kind of accolade. I feel like whatever I can contribute to wrestling, I want to be able to help people in the next generation realize their potential as quick as possible or quicker than I was able to. If I can help give anyone advice or push them into a certain direction that can lead to something good for them, career-wise, down the road, that is where I like to see myself. I don't feel like I have too many goals or aspirations of my own anymore.”
Wow, that is one heck of a quote. When Paquette asked about how Omega deals with such lofty external expectations, “The Best Bout Machine” did admit it weighs on him mentally.
“I feel like, am I wasting my time here?” Omega said. “Do I not even deserve my position if I'm not looking for some sort of measure of success for myself, am I being ungrateful? Those thoughts still fill my head a little bit because I felt that when I was motivated to win the G1, when I was motivated to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship or win the Match of the Year award or win Wrestler of the Year award or a random thing like ‘wouldn't it be nice if I could win PWI 500.' It got to a point where I was kind of creating goals to achieve, just to have something. As the checklist started to fill up, and I'm so thankful and grateful that I was able to (achieve those things), it became so much less about me and became more about ‘well, I've got this resume now,' and I know that I'm breaking down and I know there are people that have 10-15 years on me and they can much easier, and with much less of a struggle, get to where I am today and maybe I can save them some mental anguish or being away from their family a couple more years if I can help them. That's the position I feel I'm in right now.”
Well, that comment sounds like Omega is more concerned with elevating talent like Konosuke Takeshita in AEW, one of the Japanese wrestlers he helped to bring into the promotion than jumping to WWE to wrestle matches against Seth Rollins and the like. Still, Omega also mentioned on the show that he sometimes misses just being an in-ring talent without all of the added challenges of being an EVP, so until it happens, fans will have to continue to speculate.
Follow Us
Subscribe