Kenny Omega was Renee Paquette’s guest on the latest episode of The Sessions podcast. The reigning AEW World Trios Champion spoke at length about the injuries that resulted in him taking extended leave of absense from wrestling, the events that unfolded at All Out 2022 and how it’s affected things behind the scenes.
Omega was working through a slew of injuries during his reign as AEW World Champion. When he lost the title to “Hangman” Adam Page at Full Gear 2021, he decided it was finally time to get healthy.
“I had to get both my knees done, I had to get a shoulder done, I had to get my septum fixed, and then a stomach hernia, so there’s a lot,” said Omega. “So knowing that I had to get all those things done, it felt like they were more minor surgeries, it felt like it, but I ended up being out for like eight months.
But I’d felt like the company was in a fantastic position, and i’d felt that the story i was able to tell with Hangman, was one that i was very proud of, and i felt that the people were behind him. I was happy we were moving forward, in a direction that didn’t necessarily require me. I felt like, ‘Now is a good time to get this stuff taken care of.'”
Kenny Omega sensed something ominous upon his AEW return
When Kenny Omega finally returned to AEW, he felt that things were very different. There were some new faces in the locker room. More importantly, he sensed there was very bad energy brewing.
“Then I felt like, 8 months had passed, and it was time to come back, and it was kind of like, the GIF of the dude walking in with the pizza boxes and the whole room is on fire. I didn’t get it, I was like, ‘What’s with this strange atmosphere? What’s with this strange aura? Why does something feel so ominous right now?’
– Kenny Omega
“I didn’t even know, i couldn’t figure it out, and next you knew, there was more stuff happening again, like.. it’s so surreal because it’s almost like it never even happened. It happened! Of course, it happened.”
Of course, the “it” he’s referring to is the backstage brawl that took place with CM Punk and The Elite after AEW’s All Out 2022 pay-per-view. More on that to come.
“I hadn’t even gotten like, familiar with my surroundings yet, or re-familiarized backstage with the new AEW at that point, because there were new people in the locker-room, and a lot had happened in 8 months. So, to kind of come back and see a lot of old faces, and be like, ‘Oh, hey’ but then feel this eerie sort of.. I felt like i was in Eerie, Indiana for a second, it was like, ‘Oh, boy’ and then, stranger things started happening.
I was like, ‘Oh man, what do i do? This isn’t right. Someone needs to be the voice of reason. This is silly.’ Then, things fell off the rails, and we just involved in a very silly situation that people are probably going to be talking about for months and possibly years to come, i don’t know.'”
AEW All Out and the Fallout
Renee asked about the incident that took place at All Out, and if it bothers Omega that people will be talking about it for so long, especially considering all the secrecy that remains until this day. Part of you wishes you could sweep everything under the rug, but there are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding what went down.
“Here’s the way I look at it,” Omega began. “I’ve been involved in competitive sports, contact sports, at the highest level. some people on our roster have, some people on our roster have not. but i feel like, if you have, you’ve probably been in a spat or two with a teammate, and maybe sometimes, a time or two, it might come to blows, you know, it happens. so, coming from that sort of background, there was a point to it all, when i felt like, ‘Oh, this just happens. We’re gonna get over it. Let’s just calm down and talk it over.’ Nope, nothing is … we’re all doing ok here, you know, we’re getting it out of our system, no problem, but let’s maybe stop? You know?
We just don’t live in that world anymore, I suppose, sometimes there are things, especially now when you are in a multi-billion dollar industry, when there are sponsorships on the line, and TV deals on the line, it’s not like high school football. It’s not a little tiff you maybe have on your fellow amateur wrestling team or whatever, or maybe someone held a submission too long in jiu jitsu training, it’s not that. These things shouldn’t even be happening.
It’s a shame, that the general public and a lot of people aren’t ever going to know what went down and how it could have been prevented or how it could have ended differently.
– Kenny Omega
That’s just sort of how things go, again, when it’s a big business operation. i don’t think anybody is happy that it happened, or is proud that it happened, or anything like that. i think across the board, everybody thinks it was a terrible situation that was unnecessary.”
AEW’s Backstage Atmosphere Today
Omega says the atmosphere in AEW has been cleared up and things have calmed down considerably. It’s unfortunate that the public will probably never know exactly what happened that night, but he’s moved on. H’s thankful nobody got seriously injured and sincerely wishes everybody well.
“There was a while when, and I can understand the confusion, it’s sort of like, “Hey, we heard this thing happened, we know this thing happened, it’s all over the dirtsheets, why don’t we know what happened?’ It’s like, we were gone and we were sworn to secrecy, we can’t say anything, legally, so that was the poopie part, where it was like, ‘Well, why doesn’t anybody tell us what’s happening?’ And then you’re forced to form your own opinion, or come up with your own theory as to what happened.”
Renee said this creates a really weird situation. Omega agrees.
“Of course! ‘Well, I’m more of a fan of the other, so here’s the way I’m going to create the story, so that it puts this person in the best possible light’ It might be that, chances are, it’s something else, or it might be a combination of various theories. And we might never get to speak about it.
But what’s important, is that nobody was seriously injured emerging from that, and I’m so thankful from that, and we’ve moved on with life. I’m completely fine, it doesn’t dictate what I do, what i say. I’m sure the bucks are in the same boat, i can’t speak to the other parties, hopefully they’re doing well. and i mean that. that’s it.”
Listen to Kenny Omega’s appearance on The Sessions:
