Kenny Omega: “If My Motivation Was Money, I Would Already Be In The WWE”
Words from the IWGP Heavyweight Champion.
“The Cleaner” Kenny Omega is now in his six-month as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Kenny climbed to the top of the mountain in New Japan Pro Wrestling when he defeated Kazuchika Okada at ‘Dominion’ in June. Since his championship win Omega has been focusing on taking the New Japan brand to other parts of the world and bringing more eyes to the product. This is exampled by Omega running his own wrestling show in Florida over the summer when he partnered up with CEO Gaming and Omega working the Lion’s Break Project 1 show[s] in Anaheim to help further establish New Japan in California.
Kenny Omega wants his championship reign to be different from the rest and he echoed those sentiments while being interviewed by The Business Times.
“A lot of championship runs in New Japan feel the same, look the same. It’s just one person in singles matches on the same shows every year. It’s not that it’s boring, it’s fine. I have the ability to do different things and so I want to show a different title run. I can do the singles matches, it’s easy but other people can do that too. I want to show what only I can do.” Omega stated.
With most of what Omega does, the question of will he and The Elite sign with WWE when their contracts expire always come up and Omega stated that if it was all about the money, he would’ve been in WWE by now and for him, joining the sports-entertainment company would be more about creative freedom opposed to money.
“I am sort of very much a part of representing an alternative. If my motivation was money, I would already be in the WWE.” Omega said. “I was down on the current product and I wanted to create a style and have matches that my friends, my family and other athletes could watch and enjoy. There’s a certain kind of wrestling fan that will only like a certain style. They think that’s the right way and that’s okay but I’m not trying to impress those people.” He explained. “Those people are already kind of set in their ways. I’m trying to open the world to a different style – what pro-wrestling has the potential to be. It’s a tough question [Will he go to WWE]. It’s not just about the money. It’s about having the creative outlet.“
To read the full write-up on the IWGP Heavyweight Champ, click here. On a related note, New Japan is in the midst of their World Tag League tournament and to stay up to date with who’s leading the pack in the tourney, check out Fightful’s World Tag League standings article.
