Kenny Omega Says Wrestlers Who Rely On Athleticism Have Short Shelf Life

Kenny Omega didn’t become the “Best Bout Machine” for nothing. His intense, often extremely physical matches in New Japan Pro Wrestling with the likes of Kazuchka Okada have become the stuff of legend. The former AEW World Champion has slowed down a little bit since those days.

Talking to CBC, Omega said that wrestling a style based completely on athleticism can be extremely dangerous. It gives wrestlers a short shelf life. He said storytelling is as important as great in-ring action.

“I recognized that we all break down. There’s a very short shelf life to this sort of style. You burn the candle at both ends, and all you have to look back at on your body of work is that you pushed yourself athletically, right? Maybe you can pop in a tape, a DVD, a file or whatever at some point in time, say, like, ‘Hey, guys, look, I used to do this back in the day.’ But for me, that wasn’t enough. I was dedicating everything to it.”

I had lost a lot in my personal life to wrestling. I wanted to make these connections both with the fans and my comrades [in] wrestling, right, my workmates. I didn’t want to do them a disservice by going through all of this mental preparation, this physical preparation, just to have a match that isn’t appreciated in the grand scheme of things.”

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Omega is taking some time away from AEW to deal with lingering injury issues. There is no timetable set for his return. He dropped the AEW title to Hangman Adam Page at Full Gear and later relinquished the AAA Mega Championship to prepare for his time off.

The CBC piece describes Kenny Omega as one of Canada’s greatest performing artists. The Winipeg native went in depth on his thoughts of wrestling as art. If Jim Cornette is listening, he is sure to be interested in hearing what Kenny had to say.

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