Kenny Omega Explains Why His Wrestling Career Hasn't Yet Brought Him To WWE

Kenny Omega is widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers in the industry. Over the course of his 20-plus year career, "The Best Bout Machine" has managed to make a lasting impact without having stepped foot in WWE, outside of a brief but underwhelming stint with Deep South Wrestling, a former WWE developmental territory. Omega has made a name for himself in NJPW, ROH, and now AEW. Speaking recently with CBC Radio, he elaborated on why his career hasn't brought him back to WWE.

"We were raised as young individuals, as aspiring wrestlers, to believe that there's one end game. There's one place that you want to go," Omega said. "There's one place that you need to go. You are a failure if you don't go there. It was WWF. Yeah, at the time."

He decided to carve out a different path. "But I had found myself not enjoying the product," Omega continued, "and I had found myself wanting to perform in a different way, in a different way than people were used to seeing it. And that's when I sort of had my eyes opened to the other territories in the world."

Whether it was the lucha libre style in Mexico and the coordination it demanded, or the physicality and emphasis on martial arts he came across in Japan, these differences are what spoke to Omega. If he eventually wound up in WWE, then so be it, but that was never his sole purpose. Rather, it was to tell his own stories while having the flexibility to do so. 

"I guess I just wanted to be my own master and commander," Omega said. "And what I wanted to do was I wanted to make my stories more relatable. I wanted to tell human stories."

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "CBC Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.