Kenny Omega On How He Expected To End His Pro Wrestling Career

Kenny Omega was one of the top names in Japan, but he hasn’t been back since AEW was founded. He left NJPW and they had to rebuild after planning so much for him. That is where he always pictured himself as well.

Despite constant rumors of a WWE jump each time Omega’s NJPW contract came up for renewal, Omega revealed to Wrestling With The Week that he always saw himself retiring in Japan. That was well before AEW ever came along and changed his career trajectory in a huge way.

A couple of years ago he would have never imagined that his job would be in the United States working for an American pro wrestling company. Life has a way of throwing the unexpected at The Cleaner and he is “rolling with all those belt reigns” now.

“If you had asked me how I see myself years from now, I never would’ve said ‘I’m going to be a full time wrestler in America.’ I thought for sure I was going to retire in Japan, possibly live, (actually) I wouldn’t even say possibly. I was heavily leaning towards living in Japan for the rest of my days. Of course visiting Canada and maybe doing the odd here in America because we (New Japan) were trying to do the crossover anyway. So it’s really surprising. It just goes to show you can never really plan for these things, 100% anyway. You can never really plan for this phenomena that is AEW, you can never plan for the pandemic, but we’re just sort of rolling with the punches.”

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“And I’m rolling with all these belt reigns I guess (laughs). It’s a blessing, but a curse I guess. As a champion you get some high quality matches, you become the focal point of the shows. But at the same time there’s a schedule that’s required, and a demand for your body and your health and your psychological health as well. There’s just a lot that goes into being a champion I guess. It’s cool to look at the pictures and go ‘wow, look at all these belts!’ But then I think ‘man, I have to defend these. I’ve got to make time to defend these. I’ve got to be that guy for the company somehow.’ And you just count the days in the week that you have available to do it. It just requires a lot of multi-tasking. But I’m still hanging on. I can do it right now, like I feel I can do it, so I’m going to do it. It may be my last hurrah, but I’m doing it.”

Kenny Omega has a very busy schedule ahead of him. He has title matches in Impact Wrestling, AAA, and AEW in the pipeline. It will be very interesting to see which of those titles he is still holding when everything is said and done.

He is also heavily involved in AEW Games and all of the projects they have in development on top of his wrestling responsibilities. It is a good time to be Kenny Omega, but it is also a situation he never expected.

Should Kenny Omega have stayed in Japan? Sound off in the comments.

Thanks to Wrestling Inc for the quote