Kenny Omega Opens Up About Recent Injuries
Kenny Omega was long overdue for some time off after a lengthy reign as AEW World Champion. "The Cleaner" has not been seen competing in a wrestling ring since November 2021, but in a new interview with Fightful, Omega shares plenty of reasons as to why that's the case.
"When I'd start to compile a list as to what is hurting — not just hurting, but what it is that isn't going to heal on its own, the list was just too long, and I knew that as soon as I got into a position where I knew that the company was gonna be okay, and I knew that I wasn't gonna leave anybody hanging, or devalue a belt or something, that I needed to take that time to finally get things straightened out."
Omega has been dealing with a steady case of vertigo since 2017 after competing in the G1 Climax semifinal match against Kazuchika Okada. Vertigo is the feeling that the world is moving around you, and the former Champion detailed the symptoms he began feeling after it went down.
" I had taken one of Okada's dropkicks ... and it was just one of those strange, it happens once every million times, the way that he turns over on the dropkick and the way that I had fell put me right underneath his knee, so he kind of did like this backflipping knee drop onto my temple. And I guess it put something out, it put out my C1 in my neck. I thought it was just more of like a traumatic blow, like blunt force trauma type thing, because it's a big knee drop on my head. But what I didn't realize until the day after, in the morning, was that something was out, and something was wrong. As soon as a tried to stand up, I fell over — you know like, you think you're gonna walk straight, but you just, you're walking at an angle, and I fell into a dresser and knocked over a bunch of stuff ... it was rough."
Omega would realized the vertigo would be at its worse when he'd lay flat on his back, and he had to make adjustments during the finals of the G1.
"I had just put it in my head, knowing what I was going to do in that match, in the main event, that whatever I do, I have to avoid being on my back flat a lot, and try to be on my side, or at least reset to a side position, as quickly as I could, regardless of what happened in the match."