Ever since Kenny Omega usurped AJ Styles to become then then-leader of the Bullet Club, prior to forming The Elite along with the Young Bucks, his career has been on an impressive upward trajectory.
Whether it’s racking up victories in the ring, picking up prestigious championship titles, or growing his audience via his Twitch streams and competitive video game appearances, Kenny Omega is consistently at the forefront, his stock, seemingly, still rising.
So, when interviewed by The Business Times and asked why he hasn’t signed with the WWE, ‘The Best Bout Machine’ had a lot to say on the matter, making sure to highlight that he is “very much a part of representing an alternative.”
Viable Alternatives
“If my motivation was money, I would already be in the WWE,” he stated, frankly. “I was down on the current product and I wanted to create a style and have matches that my friends, my family and other athletes could watch and enjoy.”
He extrapolated his point, asserting that “[…] there’s a certain kind of wrestling fan that will only like a certain style. They think that’s the right way, and that’s okay, but I’m not trying to impress those people. Those people are already kind of set in their ways. I’m trying to open the world to a different style, what pro wrestling has the potential to be.”
Omega then stressed the importance of choice for fans, saying, “Everyone has a choice to watch whatever they want. It’s okay to like both or other promotions, too.”
“When I was growing up, I thought there was only WWE,” he confessed. “That’s it. One promotion in the world. And then, as I grew up, I found that there’s local wrestling. There’s WCW, there’s ECW. In Mexico, there are the luchadores. And then, finally, I realized there’s wrestling in Japan. I think for many people, they think there’s one giant promotion and that’s all that there is. It must be the best. But as they expand their palate and their horizons, they realize that, oh, there’s other wrestling out there. They might not necessarily like it more but it’s an option now.”
With the advent of streaming services, the rise of true, viable alternatives has become all the more prevalent, with fans who are bored or unsatisfied with the WWE’s product quickly finding a promotion more in line with what they enjoy — a fact Kenny is well aware of as he wrapped up his thoughts on the matter: “It’s cool that there are so many options for people all over the planet.”
