2016 was the year that New Japan Pro Wrestling star Kenny Omega burst out in a big way. Yes, it started out slowly losing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title to KUSHIDA at Wrestle Kingdom, but the very next night at New Japan’s “New Year’s Dash” event, he and the rest of Bullet Club laid out the leader of the Bullet Club at that time, AJ Styles and sent him packing to the WWE. Omega became the leader of the most powerful wrestling faction in the world at that time.
That moment started a year in which every other year you could have had Omega be “Wrestler of the Year”, but that AJ Styles guy had an even better year in WWE. But Omega’s year wasn’t too shabby by anybody’s standards, he won the IWGP Intercontinental Title in February against Japanese legend Hiroshi Tanahashi, competed in New Japan’s 1st ever ladder match, losing that same title in a tremendous affair with Michael Elgin, and then came his true breakout effort, winning the 3-week long G1 Climax tournament to earn him a shot at the IWGP Championship and Kazuchika Okada. His matches during G1 Finals weekend, besting former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito in the semifinals and Hirooki Goto in the finals showed that he was in the upper class of the wrestling world.
And then the 2017 Wrestle Kingdom show happened.
On the biggest stage of the Japanese wrestling calendar and for Japan’s biggest prize, Omega and Okada put on a 45-minute classic that has been described by some as the greatest professional wrestling match in history. Dave Meltzer of The Wrestling Observer gave it 6 stars, only the 2nd time he’s ever given a match that honor. Omega’s performance in the match, and his contract expiring at the end of the month led to all sorts of speculation that Omega, who was in WWE’s developmental system a decade earlier, would sign with WWE. Thankfully, I’ll get to that in a second, Omega signed an extension with New Japan.
I say “thankfully” because I don’t think Kenny Omega would be the “big buzz” signing for WWE that a lot have said he would be. Think about it, the big names that make the biggest noise for their debuts have been, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, etc… What do they all have in common? They have roots in being on American cable television with other promotions before their WWE debuts. The WWE Universe is a lot different than the hardcore wrestling fan. The majority of members of the WWE Universe do not scour the internet for wrestling from Japan, Mexico, or the United Kingdom and likely do not have the WWE Network. They are more than likely families who have their own lives and only have time for the wrestling that is on basic cable television, maybe not even every week. That wouldn’t bode well for the reaction that WWE would expect from debuting Omega to the WWE Universe. He would likely get a response to what the majority of NXT guys or guys they have brought up from the Cruiserweight Classic, none.
Omega made the smart choice in staying at least one more year with New Japan. Over there, he will continue to be the top “gaijin” or foreigner, and he has to be the odds on favorite to be one of the ones to beat Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title in the very near future. New Japan’s relationship with Ring Of Honor will likely net him some more dates to wrestle in front of a mainstream American audience and he will obviously be a focal point to everything New Japan does when it comes to the U.S. at the beginning of July for their 1st-ever stand-alone shows in Long Beach, California. To me, Omega made the right deal for himself and for the wrestling community as a whole. More wrestlers need to know that you don’t need to be WWE-based to make a tremendous living in pro wrestling.
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