Kenny Omega On Having No Interest Going To NXT, Match With Girl Being Best For Casual Fans, Cornette
As previously noted, NJPW's Kenny Omega took part in a Q&A session for 4FW. During the session, Omega talked about his best match for casual viewers, his thoughts on Jim Cornette, having almost no interest in going to NXT and whether he would be willing to change his ring name as a WWE talent.
In Omega's view, his best match for the viewer is his match with the little 9-year-old girl because you could show it to anybody.
"As a viewer, I honestly do believe that the best match is the match with the little girl. You can show it to anybody. It's the kind of match that you can show to anybody. They don't have to be a fan of professional wrestling. But do you know what? They could be a fan of professional wrestling. Even the people that have something like ADD, they can't watch anything over five minutes. The match is freakin' three-and-a-half minutes. Everyone loves to laugh. Everyone loves a grown man beating up a little girl. Deep down inside, you know it. No, I'm just kidding about that part. But perhaps the opposite is true. It is always funny to see a grown man bully get beat up by a little girl or anything."
Omega said he would show the exhibition to family who would not care for seeing him get thrown through tables.
"If I ever wanted to show a match to my parents, my uncle, my aunt, my grandma, I would probably show them that. I wouldn't show them me getting launched through a table 20 feet in the air. There is no way they would like that. I think it's just something that would be universally fun for everyone because, in the end, at the end of the day, people like watching epic encounters; however, I think people, more than that, like to laugh. That's always the most important thing."
On the subject of Cornette, Omega said his does not respect Cornette and that it bothers him that James E. will lie just to get publicity for himself.
"This is one of the things that upsets me about Cornette, is that I know he doesn't sincerely feel the way he says about me because, let's face it, I'm just an easy target right now." Omega continued, "what bothers me is that he is out to maliciously attack people to forward his own career or lack thereof. And those type of people, I can't respect whatsoever. No one on this planet should do that. You should never bury someone to forward your own personal interest. And I would never do that to anyone else on the planet. So for a guy like Jim Cornette, what he says doesn't bother me, but who he is bothers me. And I don't respect him. I can comfortably say that I very much dislike a person like Jim Cornette, so the day that he disappears from this business permanently, I think will be a happy day for professional wrestling."
Omega, who Cornette accused of faking an injury to get out of an ROH booking to work in Japan, said that Cornette's story is a lie. Moreover, Omega indicated that he did not work a match in Japan when he injured his ankle, but rather he went to get an award.
"Anytime he tries to make an argument about me, he brings up this story, which is a lie about how I emailed a picture of my broken ankle to ROH, no-showed a show, and, in place of that show, wrestled in Japan. That's not true. What is true is that I emailed a picture of some diseased ankle that I thought was funny. But the truth was my ankle really was hurt, but I thought it would be funny if I sent a picture of it being way worse just because the booker at the time was Delirious and I thought we were kind of boys that way. And yes, I was in Japan when I mailed the picture. And when he says that he read on the results that I had worked somewhere, well, it's a half-truth. I did do something and it wasn't wrestling a match. It was limping up on stage to collect my Match Of The Year trophy. So Jim Cornette uses that always in his arguments about me. And then he spouts off nonsense just to get attention, direct hits and views to himself."
According to Omega, if he were to sign with WWE in the future, he has basically no interest in going to NXT, as it is not where he sees his career going. 'The Cleaner' went on to say that he could go the rest of his career and be fine with not wrestling Samoa Joe, NXT Champion Bobby Roode, and Shinsuke Nakamura. Omega described taking his talents to NXT as a "waste".
"I know NXT is kind of like the indie darling promotion of the WWE; however, I have, maybe, next to 0% interest in going to NXT, to be honest. I'm just saying it does not jive with the goals I have in mind for myself or my [professional wrestling] career to go to NXT. As great as a guy like Bobby Roode is or Samoa Joe or Shinsuke Nakamura, I could go my entire career from this point on not wrestle those guys, and not feel like I missed something. And I don't mean disrespect to them. I just feel that I'm on borrowed time. My style is very physical and I push myself very hard and to the limit all the time to try and change wrestling and give people a reason to subscribe to a New Japan World or WWE Network and I know what we do isn't always cool, so I want to give you all a reason to find it cool again. And it's tough on me, so I want to make sure when I do these high risk matches and when I push myself beyond my boundaries that there is a point. And doing that in NXT, for me, would seem like a little bit of a waste."
Also, Omega claimed that it would be difficult for professional wrestling fans to see him as anything other than Kenny Omega, though he does not have to be 'The Cleaner' in WWE. The Wrestle Kingdom 11 main eventer compared the proposition to WWE missing the opportunity to bring Sami Zayn in as El Generico.
"I really do feel like, at this point, it would be very tough, I think, for people to recognize me as anything other than Kenny Omega. I mean, I guess you could change my moniker – I don't have to be 'The Cleaner' or whatever. I'd like to look at it, sort of in the light that Sami Zayn came into NXT. I think people really wanted to see El Generico. I really do think so. And I think that there was a missed opportunity and the fans would have loved him even more as El Generico." Omega continued, "had he come in as El Generico, what everyone knew him as and loved him as, they could have made a lot more money off of him. And it's just missed opportunity for millions of dollars for a company, who the bottom line is always dollars and cents. So I know that WWE loves to own everything, they love to have creative control; however, I think to sign with WWE, I think there is more money in Kenny Omega than Relic Schuster. Do you know what I mean? Just insert stupid name here because they're not actually good at naming people if you haven't noticed."
If you use any of the quotes from this article, please credit 4FW with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
Source: 4FrontWrestling