Kenny Omega has been out of action since November 2021. After losing the AEW World Championship to Adam Page at Full Gear, the Best Bout Machine announced he’d need to step away from AEW. He told the Young Bucks, “I feel like there is things I gotta fix and there is things I gotta change and I can’t do it here.”
Omega had been working through injuries for months. During his reign as AEW champion, he dealt with issues affecting his knee, shoulder and an abdominal hernia.
AEW President Tony Khan spoke about Kenny Omega’s situation this week while doing the media rounds for Wednesday’s Dynamite from Atlantic City. During a discussion with PWInsider, Khan said Omega is greatly missed behind the scenes.
Kenny Omega Update
“He’s one of the greatest wrestlers of all time and was a dominant champion in AEW for almost a year,” said Khan. “I personally miss Kenny Omega being around very much. He’s healing from a bunch of injuries, significant injuries.”
“He wrestled through all of that and had some of the best matches in the history of the company while he was really beat up. And he really cares a lot about wrestling and he worked his ass off to fill up and make his matches great even when he was in a ton of pain.”
It’s believed that Kenny Omega has undergone all the necessary procedures for him to begin a road back to recovery and full health. Tony Khan still can’t believe what he was able to do in the ring while battling such extensive injuries.
“Now it’s time for him to rehabilitate and heal and he’s going to come back stronger, and comeback, I hope as good or even better than ever. I really believe the stuff he did while he was physically limited was so impressive.”
“He was coming in with major injuries and then he worked a really hard schedule here in AEW too. I think he was absolutely the wrestler of the year for 2021. And I’m very excited for Kenny Omega’s return in 2022. It’ll be a long time coming and we’d be excited to have him back.”
It will be interesting to see how Kenny Omega conducts himself when he returns. Prior to his hiatus, Omega was entrenched in the Elite with the Young Bucks, but there was tension with Adam Cole. We could see Omega and Cole jockey for control of The Elite, or he could go in an entirely different direction.