Kenny Omega Confronts Criticism on Promo Delivery and Storytelling Skills

Originally, Kenny Omega was slated to join forces with Chris Jericho in their quest for the AEW World Tag Team Championships. Unfortunately, he was unable to compete due to diverticulitis. He is clearly better now, but he still has his fair share of haters and he has now confronted criticism on his promo delivery and storytelling skills.

Kenny Omega is viewed as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time thanks to his incredible matches over the years in New Japan Pro Wrestling, AEW and others. Even then, there are many people who feel Omega is a disgrace to the industry.

During his Twitch stream on March 29th, Omega addressed criticisms regarding his promos and storytelling in his on-screen performances. He defended himself by pointing out that he has successfully sold out 45,000-seat venues with his storytelling, indicating his proficiency in that aspect. Omega expressed satisfaction with his storytelling while he was a champion in AEW.

”Everyone’s wondering, Kenny, ‘Why is Kenny so bad at promos? He doesn’t have promo game… He needs to cut a promo. That’s all I care about.’ Shut the f*ck up!… Jesus Christ. You’re trying to talk about a guy who sold 45,000-seaters with my storytelling? You’re trying to tell me I don’t know how to tell stories? Because I don’t have a yelling promo voice? Yeah? You tell me and then you’re gonna say, oh well, The Rock sold more. Of course he f*cking did. He’s The Goddamn Rock and you know what? I’m not f*cking bad myself. I try my best… Honestly though, guys, when I wanna tell a story and I have a way to tell it, I’ll tell it in my ways.”

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”That’s all there is to it and maybe if something that I’ve done isn’t exciting or my American-style promos just aren’t doing it for you, well, I got news for ya, because I don’t care. I don’t care. It sucks… Hey, I got out there feeling like, man, what am I even doing out here? Why am I even wasting my Goddamn time? ”

Additionally, Omega touched on the television ratings during his tenure in AEW, highlighting solid viewership numbers for both his in-ring performances and non-wrestling segments. He specifically mentioned the opening match of the February 26th, 2020 episode of Dynamite, a 30-minute Iron Man match against PAC, which drew a million viewers.

”And you can make of it what you will. You can make of it what you will. Say bad things, troll me, whatever, criticize, it doesn’t make a difference to me. It really doesn’t, so… and you know what? You guys actually on me a little bit about the promo thing, hey, it might even inspire me a little bit to care so… No, no, no, promo slander is absolutely allowed. It’s just like, if you guys are gonna say, ‘Hey, I didn’t like a promo’ or, ‘You don’t know how to cut promos’, number one, what’s the purpose of a promo?

Of course it’s to sell a match and if you’re wondering and if you look at the records, the records will indicate that I have done my fair share of trying to sell matches in my own way. I have a promo style and cadence and speech and do I use buzzwords in the same way that other people do? Maybe no, maybe it’s just my own thing, I don’t know. But, all I do know is that when the performance of a promo or the performance of speaking hinges on the success of a matchup or wrestling card, I’m gonna do what I can to make sure that I sell (the) card and I feel like, you know, when I was champion in AEW and that’s — jeez, that’s going so far back — I felt like I did a really good job and I’m not one to hang my hat on numbers, things like that.

I don’t wrestle for ratings. I want people to feel something when I perform and if the people who are watching that are tuned in, they care and it’s not just popcorn wrestling or it’s like, okay, I’m watching it for a second and then it’s out of my mind, then I feel like I’m doing my duty as a professional wrestler, spreading the message of how powerful and how beautiful wrestling can be and for the numbers during my run and segments to top over a million and to grow, even in moments when it was just wrestling.

One of the things I was most proud of, I don’t know when it was exactly, but, I did a cold Iron Man match against PAC where, yeah, we had a story but we just started the episode of Dynamite with a 30-minute Iron Man match and that was kind of unprecedented at that point in time anyway and I think we had like 1.1. mil and I think we were floating around, you know, 859,000 at that time so it was really nice to see that just good wrestling and wrestling was drawing numbers in that day in that moment so, that’s a match actually, in my AEW tenure, it’s a match that I’m very, very proud of because it was just wrestling and people tuned in to watch wrestling and that was very nice, very nice feeling and in the same regard, the story that I was able to tell with Hangman (Adam Page) was a good combination of both, you know, what you do outside of the ring but then when you perform what you perform in the way that you need to perform it when it came time to blow off the thing.

So, I’m really proud of that stuff so, it’s all good memories. It’s all good memories and hopefully if I can come back, then I’ll be able to create some more… And I hope I do it in a capacity with stuff that’s fun. Fun, challenging — actually, challenging might be the best way to put it. Like being challenged a lot. ”

Kenny Omega will continue to get haters no matter what and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon. Nevertheless, Omega will likely return to AEW television soon, so it remains to be seen how Omega will be booked upon his return.

Do you feel Kenny Omega deserves more credit for his mic skills? Let us know in the comments section below!