Kenny Omega Says Professional Wrestling Is A Lot Like The Theatre

Kenny Omega is one of the greatest wrestlers around today. He won the top spot for male wrestlers, named Number 1 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated’s rankings for 2021, Omega beat out even the “Head of the Table,” himself, Roman Reigns for that particular honor.

His opinion is therefore respected by one and all. It was a recent opinion that garnered quite a bit of attention, an opinion about how he views the industry he’s at the very top of.

The fourth wall was broken long ago. If you think that wrestling isn’t scripted in advance, you have some reading to do. Therefore pro wrestling has often been referenced to as entertainment and art. Now that is a description that has offended some out there, it would seem that Omega has no problem comparing the artform he practices to the theater of all things.

It was while in conversation with Chris Dart of CBC Arts that he made the aforementioned comparison and divulged a few other thoughts he has on the subject of pro wrestling.

“I like to compare what I do to episodic television. But in a lot of cases, it can be like performance art, or a night out at the theatre… I think that one of the beautiful things about professional wrestling is, depending on where you are and the audience you’re performing for, it can be either/or.

I had lost a lot in my personal life to wrestling. I wanted to make these connections both with the fans and my comrades [in] wrestling, right, my workmates. I didn’t want to do them a disservice by going through all of this mental preparation, this physical preparation, just to have a match that isn’t appreciated in the grand scheme of things.

That was sort of the goal for me as a performer. How can I mix everything that I’ve learned from the different styles that I know in wrestling, from the tapes that I studied, from the pop culture references, culture in general and media? How do I take all of these things and how do I become the best storyteller I can be?”

He is out right now, having lost the title to ‘Hangman’ Adam Page and he recently vacated the AAA Mega Championship to boot, as he is healing from a plethora of injuries – he needing surgeries as well.

His comparisons can be considered food for thought, as wrestling is a form of theater at the end of the day – athletic theater if you will. We wish the living legend a speedy recovery.

*Thanks to Wrestle Zone for the quote.