Kenny Omega: "I'd rather be the legend that never stepped foot in WWE"

[offkilter]

"Some might cost a little, and some might cost a lot, but I'm Vincent Kennedy McMahon and you will be bought."

 

[GKJ]

He wasn't at New Years Dash right?

It feels like an angle to me.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

It's a work.

 

[Sheppy]

It's most likely a work now that i think about it. I got up, saw twitter and got a bit excited.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

"Some might cost a little, and some might cost a lot, but I'm Vincent Kennedy McMahon and you will be bought."

It makes me want to start a thread if you could pick only one wrestler who was never been WWF Champion that should have been, who would you pick? I have 4 guys in my head, but #1 would be The Million Dollar Man.

 

[Kimi]

It makes me want to start a thread if you could pick only one wrestler who was never been WWF Champion that should have been, who would you pick? I have 4 guys in my head, but #1 would be The Million Dollar Man.

DiBiase is probably the correct name.

But it'll be really hard to talk me out of picking an English wrestler if I had to pick someone. Bulldog, Regal, or Barrett are really hard to pass over for anyone.

 

[Morozov]

I doubt Kenny is doing anything more than working an angle where he steps aside to "question himself" or something along those lines before coming back to push for the belt again. Maybe he does a small stint elsewhere in the process.

He knows full well that tweet will stir up the "omg Kenny to WWE" rumours because he likes working people like that.

In the event that he did decide to leave Japan altogether then I doubt he'd go to WWE. The guy seems genuinely invested in the wrestling business and wanting it to do well and he knows him going to WWE only continues to hurt the business as a whole for all the reasons he has previously outlined.

 

[Dr Pepper]

Is it safe to assume Kenny's fluent in Japanese, having been there for so long?

Makes me wonder the same about AJ, Gallows and Anderson, and why they don't use it every now and then. They've referenced working in Japan in a few promos so it's not as though WWE's trying to sweep it under the rug or anything.

 

[Kimi]

Is it safe to assume Kenny's fluent in Japanese, having been there for so long?

Makes me wonder the same about AJ, Gallows and Anderson, and why they don't use it every now and then. They've referenced working in Japan in a few promos so it's not as though WWE's trying to sweep it under the rug or anything.

Omega is fluent.


But it's not safe to assume. Japanese isn't something you can just pick up, especially if you're not there full time. Omega lives in Japan and almost exclusively works for NJPW, opposed to most foreign guys in NJPW who are only in the county for the tours they're booked on. The pressures to learn are very low, as you can easily get by with a basic phrase book during a short stay, especially now with the translators you can carry have on your phone. Even living there you can easily stay in a bubble and get by without learning really, you can even make an argument that it's not worth the effort if you're not going to live there for more than a few years.

Japanese is also a lot harder to pick than other languages, like Spanish or something. There's a ton of exposure to it in america from Mexicans in general culture and it's also common in schools. So if you were sent to Mexico you'd have some sort of base to build on, and there are many similarities to English that help too. But with Japanese you've got something that's completely different and you'll have nothing to start with or anything. It requires real study to learn, same with something like Russian.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

That's why if one guy probably won't make the jump to WWE, it's Omega (I do believe he will eventually). He lives in Japan. He learned the language. He wanted to wrestle in Japan, not WWE. If one guy won't make the jump it'd be Omega, but eventually he will jump over.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

It's a work, or brilliant negotiating

 

[GKJ]

The questions are legitimate though. Okada is always going to be the top star. Naito is gaining steam with LIJ, and the Bullet Club seems to be in the back seat. He very likely would win the IWGP title at some point this year. But Is he going to main event the Tokyo Dome again? Is he the guy who is star that expands the appeal of NJPW in North America? How far can he go, and at what point does he not think he can go any further?

 

[AfroThunder396]

The future of the Bullet Club is kind of murky. It's quickly approaching nWo Wolfpack territory, there's like 25 guys in the Bullet Club now. They need to shake it up

I can definitely see them having Bullet Club turn on him with a guy like maybe Cody Rhodes assuming control. They could do a very "Evolution Turning On Randy Orton" story line and Kenny would get huge babyface sympathy, especially in Japan. Bullet Club would get back some much needed heat back.

 

[Isi]

He wasn't at New Years Dash right?

It feels like an angle to me.

He was there but the whole of Bullet Club were quietly left out of any angles for the immediate shows. he'll come back in a couple of months after some R&R (something he wouldn't be able to do in the wwe...)

 

[offkilter]

It makes me want to start a thread if you could pick only one wrestler who was never been WWF Champion that should have been, who would you pick? I have 4 guys in my head, but #1 would be The Million Dollar Man.

I didn't initially want to derail this thread, but since there are now two Kenny Omega threads I'll go ahead and give you my answers.

Million Dollar Man is definately at the top of the list along with Roddy Piper, Junk Yard Dog, and Jerry The King Lawler. The sad thing with Lawler is I think they really were going to place the title on him for at least one night given the storylines he was involved with before he had that heart attack on air.

 

[KaseMeOutside]

Yup wasted Rollins/Ambrose (I am sure that Million dollars and title reigns they had really sucked for them).

Or that chump Owens so wasted. AJ Styles what a horrible 1st year he had.

If Omega thinks he is a legend come to the WWE and make yourself a legend. The cream rises to the top even in the WWE. Or maybe he knows he can't cut it and would rather be the big fish in Japan. Personally I would love to see him come to the WWE and I think he would get over.

Yeah and look what they did with others.

-Did everything they could to try and squander Daniel Bryan's momentum, they coulda had their top guy who was breaking the pop culture barriers they so desperately want, but because he was not their "vision" of what a no.1 guy should be they just pissed the fans off.

-Gallows and Anderson, talk about no clue here.

-Somehow Joe, Roode, and Nakamura are all in NXT which is a total joke.

-Rollins is a great example of a WWE failure, this guy was MADE. His return had the fans begging for him to be the no.1 babyface and what do they do? the whole "look at how smart we are" ********, kept him heel, made him look like a loser groveling to the authority until HHH made him look even dumber, and are trying to make him a face now, when if they had done the LOGICAL thing he would have already been what they wanted.

 

[AfroThunder396]

"The cream rises to the top in WWE" is a pretty incomplete statement to make. Look at how many top guys they've tried to manufacture and TELL us how good they are.

Reigns, obviously, id the first one that comes to mind. Talented wrestler but this booking clearly doesn't work. Remember when Sheamus was being pushed as the top babyface in 2012-2013, with he had the silly backstage vignettes? Remember Alberto Del Rio's failed face push? Remember Bobby Lashley? Remember Ryback?

At the same time, look at all the main event talent they've squandered. Rollins should be a mega star right now, but they don't know how to book him. Cesaro may be the best pure athlete this company has had in 10 years. Bray Wyatt is perpetually stuck in the midcard. Ambrose is a wacky comic book cartoon character. Gallows & Anderson are wasting their time in this company.

 

[Dr Pepper]

The fact that we'll never ever see this in a WWE ring is confirmation that I'd rather Omega continue to dominate over in Japan than ever play second or third fiddle in WWE.

 

[Tom ServoMST3K]

I still think it could be a pure negotiating play to get more money from NJPW

making WWE noise instead of saying "I don't wanna go there" is an opportunity to get dat extra $$$.

 

[M.C.G. 31]

I still think it could be a pure negotiating play to get more money from NJPW

making WWE noise instead of saying "I don't wanna go there" is an opportunity to get dat extra $$$.

He's saying it to get people talking about him. He's signed for at least another year with NJPW.

What he's doing is clearly working: https://www.google.com/trends/explore?q=kenny omega

 

[scrubadam]

Yeah and look what they did with others.

-Did everything they could to try and squander Daniel Bryan's momentum, they coulda had their top guy who was breaking the pop culture barriers they so desperately want, but because he was not their "vision" of what a no.1 guy should be they just pissed the fans off.

In the end DB got his shine and got to the top. And then they were right to not hitch their wagon to him seeing as he can't ever wrestle again without probably putting himself in a wheelchair.

-Gallows and Anderson, talk about no clue here.

In the mix for the tag titles all year. Whats different then in NJPW? They were lacky's in the BC which is made up of 25 people now.

-Somehow Joe, Roode, and Nakamura are all in NXT which is a total joke.

How so?? They are headlining one of the hottest brands in wrestling selling out shows across the globe. Eventually they will make their way on the roster but all of these guys have had rockets up their butts for their tenures so far.

-Rollins is a great example of a WWE failure, this guy was MADE. His return had the fans begging for him to be the no.1 babyface and what do they do? the whole "look at how smart we are" ********, kept him heel, made him look like a loser groveling to the authority until HHH made him look even dumber, and are trying to make him a face now, when if they had done the LOGICAL thing he would have already been what they wanted.

Rollins has been the star and involved in the main event for like the past year and a half. He is one of the biggest names in WWE along with Cena/Reigns/Styles.

This isn't the days of Hogan anymore where fatties and muscle guys get main event shots to job out to Hogan.

 

[Pinkfloyd]

Lol at that DB take. His injuries had nothing to do with their decision not to hitch their wagon to him. That was completely a marketing decision. His injuries were mostly due to how they worked him during that run and it was ludicrous. They left a hell of a lot of money on the table when it comes to DB.

 

[Morozov]

“If I ever stepped away from wrestling, I’d have a nice pretty little package with a bow on top if I won the most prestigious title. The IWGP title makes me a legend. I’ve committed half my life to this, and it’s worth all the sacrifice. Not only was it worth it, but it was worth it and then some.â€

“This IWGP title means more with me than any WWE championship,†said Omega. “The WWE belt means nothing, it means absolutely nothing. They pass around that belt like a hot potato. I probably have a neighbor on my block who held that belt at one point. There is no prestige to that belt whatsoever.â€

“I’m a foreigner and someone who was a junior a year ago, and there are still a lot of people who don’t believe I deserve to be in this spot,†said Omega. “I want to say something in Japanese, but the first order of business is to assure the people that things are going to change. The company is not going to stroll along. I’ll be on the political end lobbying for the company to have more shows in America and the U.K. I was never supposed to be G-1 winner or a heavyweight or in a ladder match, but the company trusted me. For them to trust me to this point, I want to be the guy to take the company further than it has ever gone. New Japan Pro Wrestling has a time-honored tradition as the King of Strong Style for the past fifty years, but now I want to make it more than that. The smart money for 2017 is still on me. I’m going to move this company forward.â€

“I want to take New Japan into a new world of wrestling so there is at least one other option to the monopolized world that WWE has created.â€

Hard to see him going anywhere else.