Kenny Omega recently spoke with Justin Barrasso for Sports Illustrated Extra Mustard‘s Week In Wrestling; you can read a few excerpts below:
Kenny Omega comments on his return to Ring of Honor for War of the Worlds, if he has a goal to become ROH World Champion:
“There certainly is a difference in psychology, but that clear difference makes it even more exciting to return after all these months. In terms of being ROH champion, it’s never been a viable goal since I’ve only ever been in title contention once in my career. If I were ever in a position to appear more for ROH, I would accept nothing less than to be recognized as the best – which would mean having to challenge the top dogs/champions.”
Omega on the prestige of the IWGP Championship, with only having one champion in 2017 while WWE has already had 7 combined World and Universal champions:
“That’s a tough question. Both companies approach the business a little differently, and thus you’re going to get different types of treatment towards their respective titles.
“Generally speaking, WWE is show business and there will be times when the belt is nothing but a prop to advance TV storylines. NJPW likes to use its heavyweight belt to feature its style pro wrestling at the highest level. Matches in New Japan are generally longer and theatrics kept to a minimum. Also, the idea of having a single strong champion goes back years and years and years, and NJPW is very tradition-heavy.”
Omega comments on tweeting about Seth Rollins debuting a new finishing maneuver similar to his Rain Trigger:
“If he was inspired by my match to add that to his arsenal, it’s a great compliment. A finishing move is an important part of one’s character–and sometimes success. So for him, being a top guy in WWE, it’s cool that he chose something that I’d used earlier in the year during my match with Okada.
“As for the tweet, a lot of guys don’t know that I used to travel with Rollins all of the time in ROH. We never became the closest of friends, but we’re definitely cool with each other and the mutual respect has always been there. If I was legitimately angry, I’d just flat out say so. I’m not one to shy away from speaking my mind.”
