‘We’re nonetheless right here’: Kenny Omega opens up on AEW’s wild street, Okada and gratitude forward of All In 2025

Heavy is the pinnacle that wears the crown, however even heavier is the hair that wears the braid or the bald cap. “Avenue Fighter,” the enduring preventing sport franchise that your mother and father mastered and your nieces and nephews stream, is on its sixth official iteration, and within the digital age, some characters are created and launched after the sport’s preliminary launch. To introduce the newest additions to the lineup, Capcom reached out to wrestling superhuman/side-quest savant Kenny Omega, who donned the wigs and put on of Crimson Viper, Ingrid, Sagat, and his “Avenue Fighter” essential, the pugilistic protagonist of “Avenue Fighter III,” Alex.

“[The development team] stated, ‘Yeah, hey, do you thoughts dressing up as everyone? Or do you simply need to be Alex?’” Omega tells Uncrowned, revisiting one of many many bucket record objects his otherworldly output has afforded him simply days forward of AEW’s greatest present of the yr, All In 2025. “I stated, ‘Are you kidding me? I need to get everybody a shot right here. This seems to be enjoyable.’ It was actually cool.

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“Sporting C. Viper’s wig … that ponytail is simply yanking your head, providing you with hernias. It is loopy, a lot weight. Then carrying the bald cap — I’ve by no means seen myself bald both, so carrying the bald cap for Sagat, it was actual enjoyable.” And so it goes that in 2025, Omega wears lots of hats, however what’s beneath every of them is likely one of the driving forces of contemporary skilled wrestling, each contained in the ring and out. Saturday’s All In extravaganza is just another alternative to indicate why he — and the model closely constructed on his type and historical past — is so particular.

Together with The Younger Bucks, Omega is the personification of the query: “When you have been beginning a wrestling firm, who would you choose as your lead act?” When Tony Khan first went all in on AEW, it was the breakneck, hyper-athletic type and fourth-wall-breaking humor Omega and the Bucks curated that grew to become the imprint’s driving pressure. Earlier than Khan examined the televised wrestling waters with 2019’s All Out — AEW’s debut pay-per-view occasion highlighting The Elite and different non-WWE prime abilities around the globe — Omega was already the stuff of legend: A Canadian-born dynamo who, no less than internationally, had surpassed the work of his legendary countrymen like Owen Hart and Chris Jericho. From his preliminary tour to Japan with DDT Professional Wrestling in 2008 to his New Japan Professional Wrestling swan music in 2019, Omega had executed all of it, successful title after title and both occupying or hovering close to the highest of each retailers year-end “Finest Wrestler” lists. So contemplating his intensive résumé and skills, it could not have been the largest gamble for Khan to make, however Omega stays appreciative of getting the prospect to indicate that their model of leisure was sustainable.

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“We actually did really feel like this was one thing that followers had needed,” Omega says. “And by what followers had needed, I simply imply an alternate, one thing new to look at — not essentially in alternate for what that they had already been watching, however perhaps one thing so as to add to their present palate of wrestling programming. And we might seen lots of success abroad. We might seen lots of success within the indies. At the moment, too, we have been promoting lots of [Bullet Club and Elite] merchandise by Sizzling Matter and thru Professional Wrestling Tees. So it actually did really feel like there was a motion taking place earlier than our very eyes, and that if our stuff and other people like our stuff have been making a motion, then if there is a option to make it extra out there for them, that folks may watch. So it is actually cool that we have been truly capable of materialize that, make it right into a factor — and 6 years later, right here we’re. We’re nonetheless right here.”

In and out the ring, the outrageous and inconceivable are simply additional issues to try for Omega. He’s within the video video games he performs and he voice-acts within the anime he watches, all as a result of he determined to offer it a strive. He’s the child at summer season camp who’d bounce off of something simply because the chance introduced itself. “You simply do not actually know your full potential except you simply attain out and go for it,” he says. “You by no means actually noticed issues like what [WWE wrestler and fellow gamer Xavier] Woods and I have been capable of do till we simply began to do them. After all, I am positive we each really feel blessed, all that stuff, but it surely actually is that that is one of many large rewards, I suppose, of being good and sacrificing for what you’re keen on.

“So to have the ability to mirror again and look upon a few of the different cool stuff I have been capable of get out of all this, that makes me really feel grateful and humbled and all that. I at all times mirror again to that, how I can not solely take pleasure in my hobbies, however to absolutely the fullest, the place I’ve obtained a hand in them, I am twiddling my fingers and toes in it … it is a present that retains on giving.”

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As invested as Omega is in AEW’s success, whether or not it’s by his performances or his friends discovering equal or larger footing, he has an appreciation for his wrestling household above all else. And whereas he understands competitors and fervour, he’s fast to determine that his wrestling household, like Woods and his New Day compatriots, don’t know one locker room, one firm, or one continent. “The reality of the matter is, these favourite sports activities groups might not essentially really feel the very same method as you do towards the skilled rivalry,” he says. “I do assume it is nice for us to have had the chance to be in public with it and say, ‘Hey, look, yeah, we’re competing, but it surely’s all in good enjoyable.’ We’re doing this so that you guys can share fun. It isn’t to be able to write in on a smurf account on-line and say a bunch of nasty issues that you just’re most likely going to remorse if [people] ever came upon it was actually you.

“[If] you actually have pores and skin within the sport, you are concerned on the enterprise degree {of professional} wrestling, maybe you are an investor, then perhaps I can get it. Perhaps I can perceive why you are actually pushing laborious for one crew over one other since you spent your life financial savings or one thing. However I feel if it is about simply having fun with a product or having fun with a selected type of wrestling, or perhaps your favourite athletes are in a single place over one other, simply remember that these athletes are additionally nonetheless human beings.”

Whereas it’s nice to see your faces and logos emblazoned on t-shirts and stickers, Omega’s focus stays on what’s taking place contained in the ring. Touted as “The place the most effective wrestle,” it’s that hyper-kinetic, effortlessly athletic, longform wrestling that’s AEW’s calling card, and it’s Kenny Omega’s answering machine on the opposite finish of the road. He takes the phrase “like a online game” to the subsequent degree, however with much less lives and extra ammo. Since AEW’s inception, he’s run the gamut of feats and foes, turning into the primary particular person to win the promotion’s World, Worldwide, Tag Workforce and Trios Championships. The aptly named “Finest Bout Machine” has confronted and defeated the likes of Jon Moxley, Will Ospreay, and his personal Elite brethren The Younger Bucks and Hangman Adam Web page in a number of Match of the Yr candidates.

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The wrestling comes simple for Omega; the tougher — and presumably extra fascinating half — is attempting to ensure all of the issues that encompass it are flowing correctly.

Omega, together with the Bucks and Cody Rhodes, got the titles of Government Vice President upon AEW’s inception, and whereas the position may be very loosely outlined, there’s very clear involvement within the artistic course of from stated events. Forward of All In, Tony Khan made it clear that he has ultimate say on what’s produced, however enter comes from a number of locations. The primary half of 2025 is probably going AEW’s finest streak of high quality programming, and it’s the end result of begins, stops, and common trial and error.

“I feel once you embark on a journey to search out your individual id and you’ve got a couple of cook dinner in any kitchen, the imaginative and prescient will change, maybe, or the imaginative and prescient that you just assume it ought to be will change,” Omega says. “So had all of the keys to the citadel been in a single particular person’s arms solely, perhaps we’d be someplace fully totally different proper now. Not saying it will be a greater place or a worse place, however I feel that as a result of we have had so many forks within the street, and typically it went effectively, and typically it blew up in our face — errors might be helpful too. And I simply am pleased that earlier than our greatest present of the yr, one in every of them anyway, that we’re in an excellent place, each with our fan base or with informal those that simply tune in to look at only a good evening of wrestling.”

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One facet that AEW has at all times banked on is the concept wrestling existed earlier than it first aired, and it was good. When a brand new expertise reveals up on-screen, AEW announcers run down their earlier stops and accomplishments, even when all of it occurred beneath the watch of their rivals. Whereas WWE coverage has modified beneath its Paul Levesque-helmed period, for many years it was primarily forbidden to speak a couple of wrestler’s title wins in Japan or their blood feuds in Europe. However AEW has championed “lore” from the outset, giving a agency handshake to their base when WWE would hardly ever wink — and even much less regularly nod — to issues outdoors of its attain.

And only a few acts have the intensive battle tales that Omega can remix and revisit.

All In 2025 is the positioning of the most recent chapter of one in every of Omega’s greatest, as he and Worldwide Champion and Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada face off for the fifth time to crown AEW’s first-ever Unified Champion. At this level, the backstory to their rivalry is the stuff of legends — Omega’s promotion to New Japan Professional-Wrestling’s essential occasion scene got here in 2017, and he fell brief in his first try and uncrown perennial pacesetter Okada at WrestleKingdom 11. Celebrated as among the best wrestling matches ever, the 2 then ignited a rivalry so resonant that the U.S. Belt’s side-plates characteristic their silhouettes, with characters executing Omega’s One Winged Angel finisher and Okada’s Rainmaker clothesline, respectively.

“After I was a baby rising up watching WWF, WWE, they [did] such an ideal job of convincing you that nothing ever occurred till they have been in WWE,” Omega says. “And the reality of the matter is, perhaps these guys have met in Japan, Mexico, WCW, ECW, however you’d by no means realize it as a result of they might by no means speak about it. And I do assume that it is a totally different strategy [in AEW], completely, from how issues have been again once I was rising up as a fan.

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“It reveals appreciation for the studied, cultured wrestling fan who has truly paid consideration in spite of everything these years and adopted a profession from begin to the place we’re at now.”

Whereas the 2 have alternated as prime canine over the previous decade, Omega may be very conscious of the opposite comings and goings of AEW. The gamer in him appreciates the number of the locker room, and that folks with totally different backgrounds and characters have the identical motivation to be the particular person in that highest slot. Whether or not it’s Swerve Strickland, Toni Storm, Mercedes Moné, Will Ospreay, or the 2 males vying over the AEW Title on Saturday, it’s that willingness to step outdoors of themselves that stands proud.

“I actually very a lot recognize that it exists, that there’s a starvation and a ardour [to be] aware of the concept of getting down and soiled with some hardcore objects and bleeding lots,” Omega says of AEW. “Individuals are prepared to face their fears, and so they’re prepared to strive one thing new if they’ve a chance to then change into a prime man inside the trade. So we’ve got a bunch of fellows who’re vying to be the highest man or woman in our firm, and so they’re prepared to take probabilities, they’re prepared to make sacrifices, and so they’re not going to surrender till they get it. I feel it is nice that we’ve got greater than only one or two of those individuals. We now have 4, 5, six of them. There isn’t any scarcity of individuals that basically need the chance to indicate up and present out.”

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Even with the prospect so as to add to his personal record of all-time nice matches on Saturday, Omega is hoping for an additional story’s subsequent chapter to surpass its predecessor on Saturday. “My favourite hardcore match [ever] … was most likely the very first [Jon] Moxley [vs.] Hangman [Adam Page] match, the primary Texas deathmatch they did,” he says. “They have been capable of seize some loopy magic that evening. I’d even go so far as to say I feel it’s totally underrated up so far. For them to have the ability to do it once more, and now the stakes are larger this time and it is for the largest prize in AEW, I feel it might be one thing very particular. I feel it should be a really fascinating match, which I simply hope would not go too far.”

Omega, like the world warriors he’s emulated and cosplayed as, has developed over time, altering to maximise not solely what he can produce for himself, however how he can finest assist the enterprise he loves. The all-everything wrestler is AEW’s standard-bearer and one the voices within the room that helps create the distinctive model of motion and anarchy that’s drawn so many individuals to the product forward of All In 2025. Above any championship, above any star ranking, above any cameo, what Omega holds onto is the concept the followers select to be there to share these accomplishments with him and his crew.

“I feel it speaks volumes to what we have put collectively up so far,” he says. “For the people who find themselves well-versed as to all of the reveals which are taking place this week, there is no scarcity of wrestling. There’s stuff taking place each single day. And for that many individuals to have made the selection to hang around with us for that day when there are different choices out there, I’ve lots of gratitude towards people who find themselves deciding to spend their afternoon night with us on All In. It is actually cool that one thing that began not so way back is admittedly selecting up steam, and we’re capable of make these massive occasions that may get our fan bases excited.

“For individuals to determine to hang around with us for that night means the world to us.”