Kenny Omega Says He Expected To Finish Career In Japan
AEW's Kenny Omega was the 'run in' on this weeks Wrestling With the Week podcast with James Willems and fellow AEW star Scorpio Sky. Omega talked about holding the AAA, Impact and AEW World Championships at the same time, as well as the fact that he never saw himself becoming this successful in American wrestling. In fact, he never saw himself wrestling full time in America period.
"It's very odd," Omega said. "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.
"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."
Omega's schedule won't be getting any easier. He is scheduled to defend the AEW Championship at Double or Nothing against PAC and Orange Cassidy, the Impact World Championship at Against All Odds against Moose, and the AAA Mega Championship at TripleMania XXIX against Andrade.
You can watch the full show below.