Kenny Omega made it through Wembley and delivered one of the biggest matches of his career against Will Ospreay. What fans couldn’t see was how much uncertainty Omega was still carrying about whether his body would cooperate when he needed it most.
Speaking with Crunchyroll, Omega opened up about the physical ups and downs he has dealt with since returning to wrestling. While discussing his My Hero Academia-inspired entrance at All In, Omega explained why All Might’s story felt so personal to him.
“But when I had thought about sort of Kenny Omega as a whole, as an entity, and what he’s been like since he’s come back, you know, there have been so many ups and downs. There have been moments when I felt great in the ring, but then there’s been moments where I felt terrible, but I had to show the smile still.”
Omega doesn’t want those bad days becoming the story every time he wrestles. Even when he isn’t feeling right, he would rather fans judge what happens in the ring than watch his matches wondering about his health.
“I had to keep that mask on a little bit because I don’t want people to always have to worry about what’s going on in the guts, you know? That’s the last thing I want. I don’t want just forever sympathy because Kenny Omega sometimes has bad days. I want people to sort of judge my performances based on the performance itself, without that being an excuse. I don’t want that ever to be like a built-in excuse for my matches.”
That is also where the All Might connection goes deeper than simply borrowing something cool from anime. Omega related the character’s stomach injury and declining ability to use his powers to his own abdominal problems.
“So I always felt, especially while watching, like, yeah, All Might incurred that terrible stomach injury when he fought All For One. And since then his power’s been diminishing and diminishing. And because he can’t absorb the nutrients and preserve his energy, the amount of time he gets to use his powers becomes, you know, smaller and smaller and smaller.”
“And it would really hit home to think back about that and relate it to, you know, my stomach issue as well, which is, you know, I have scars that are pretty much in the exact same spot.”
Those concerns followed Omega all the way to his AEW World Championship match against Ospreay at All In. For Omega, there was always the possibility that his body could take the match away from him before he ever had the chance to give Wembley what he wanted.
“There was always this worry before Wembley, especially, where I thought, ‘Man, I want to do the best I can, but what if I injure myself in the first five minutes of the match? What if I’m having a terrible stomach attack on the day of and I can’t really show what Kenny Omega is all about and give the people the show that they paid for and deserve?’ So all these worries.”
The Best Bout Machine didn’t even have to make it into the match for something to go wrong. Rain had made the entrance ramp slick, giving Omega one more thing to worry about while making his way to the ring.
“Roll your ankle in your entrance. You know what I mean? Because it was raining. So, I mean, when it’s raining coming down in the… yes, it was a felt slick ramp. You have to be very careful.”
“I mean, it got so slippery. Like, you had to be very careful. And it was raining in my entrance, I think. So I thought like, boy, like this is either really cool or I’m asking for it.”
Omega ultimately made it down the ramp, through the entire match and all the way to the finish without his body deciding the outcome for him. Ospreay defeated him for the AEW World Championship, but Omega was relieved that the loss came inside the match rather than because something went wrong physically.
“But no, I’m just glad the match got to go off without a hitch. And that, you know, I didn’t lose via injury or something that was beyond my control.”
“I’m glad I was able to go out, give my all, and do the best that I could.”
The match itself had already been under plenty of pressure. Ospreay previously revealed that some of their planned ideas had been used earlier on the All In card, forcing the two to change portions of the match only a few bouts before they went out. Their “Plan B” ultimately included Ospreay kicking out of Omega’s protected One-Winged Angel at one before Omega did the same with the Stormbreaker.
That makes what Omega was dealing with personally another side of the same Wembley story. Ospreay was worrying about rebuilding parts of the match at the last minute, while Omega was worrying about whether an injury or another stomach attack might stop him from finishing it at all. Omega got through Wembley without either happening. He still has good days and terrible ones, but he doesn’t want the latter becoming an excuse attached to every performance he gives.
What do you make of Kenny Omega admitting he sometimes has to hide how bad he feels while wrestling? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
