That Was Then, Is This Too? 10.27.09: It Came From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Welcome to yet another installment of That Was Then, Is This Too?, the column that looks for parallel lines in all the right places. Unfortunately I currently seem to be suffering from some sort of weapons-grade turboflu that’s messing with all sorts of bodily functions, so I’m skipping straight to Banner 2.0.

Being a darling of the Internet Wrestling Community is hard work. With DVDs of promotions from every corner of the earth being available, as well as plenty of video hosting sites like Youtube, it’s hard for a young wrestler to stand out and get noticed by the fans. After years of everybody adding more flips, corkscrews, leg hooks and pumphandles to already spectacular moves, wrestlers have to rely more and more on their character and natural charisma to not only grab but keep the attention of the fans.

One such wrestler who in the past year has managed to capture the attention of many independent wrestling fans is Kenny Omega. The young man from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, has been bouncing around the Canadian independent scene for the better part of this decade. However, it wasn’t until recently that he truly started to spread his wings. After years of working mainly in the local Premier Championship Wrestling promotion, he received a tryout with then-WWE developmental territory Deep South Wrestling in 2005, and was soon after signed to a developmental contract.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for Omega, as he had trouble getting along with promoters Jody Hamilton and Bill DeMott. Despite having some success in DSW, he eventually asked for and was granted his release after just eight months in the territory. He quickly returned to his hometown promotion of PCW, spending most of 2007 in the Manitoba province.

It wasn’t until 2008 that he returned to America on a regular basis, appearing in the east coast based Jersey All Pro Wrestling promotion, where he soon captured the promotion’s heavyweight championship. While successfully defending the title for the rest of the year, he also made his way to the Japanese comedy promotion Dramatic Dream Team, where he would first feud and then team with Kota Ibushi, the company’s most successful export, who recently lost the DDT Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship, which has previously been held by a taxi driver, a group of school girls, a dog and a ladder, to a blowup doll.

Throughout 2008, he also made his way to some of the more prominent American promotions. He first appeared in PWG during the 2008 Battle of Los Angeles, where he lost in the first round. He soon formed the Men of Low Moral Fibre tag team with Chuck Taylor, and together they made it to the semifinals of this year’s DDT4 tournament before losing to eventual winners the Young Bucks.

Omega’s long overdue ROH debut came in July of 2008, when the company finally made its way to Canada for the first time. Although he lost both his matches on his first weekend in the company, he would eventually find success in December, pinning former student Rhett Titus at All Star Extravaganza IV and upsetting veteran Claudio Castagnoli at Final Battle 2008 by reversing his Ricola Bomb into a small package.

Omega initially appeared only sporadically throughout 2009, not setting foot in an ROH ring again until three months later, when he was unsuccessful in a four corner survival match and a triple threat match. He returned to the company in April and scored another upset, this time pinning once and future ROH World Champion Austin Aries after the former had run down Omega in a pre-match promo, claiming that he didn’t deserve to stand in the same ring as Aries, Strong and Jay Briscoe.

The upset eventually led to a full-blown feud between Omega and Aries’ new and still unnamed stable. They would trade victories throughout several multi-man and six man tag matches, with Omega eventually pinning Aries for a second time in a match where he teamed up with the Briscoe brothers to take on Aries, Titus and King. Although Omega certainly has a claim to a shot at Aries’ world title thanks to these pinfall victories, it seems that Aries is content to dodge him in favour of his Lethal Lottery, which has recently gone international with Aries scheduling a title defence against Ruckus in Warsaw, Poland.

Throughout all this it seems that Omega has managed to not only capture the attention of the IWC, but more importantly managed to keep it. Independent wrestling fans in general and ROH fans in particular are a fickle lot, as proven by their sudden hatred of Tyler Black, but thanks to his rather original gimmick based heavily on various Japanese cultural references. His mat wrestling skills aren’t extraordinary, but he does seem to have the competence that seems to be firmly ingrained in the genetics of Canadian professional wrestlers. He certainly does know how to fly, as evidenced by his Golden Shower tag team finisher, where he and his partner hit a simultaneous 450 splash, and he has some innovative variations on the standard high impact moves. All in all, he strongly reminds me of another IWC darling who also hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

That Was Then…

Chris Jericho got arguably the best start to his career a wrestler can have, receiving training in the legendary Hart Family Dungeon, where he met future tag team partner Lance Storm. They would often partner together on Jericho’s tours of Canada, Mexico and Japan, where he worked, among other promotions, in Smokey Mountain Wrestling, CMLL and WAR.

It was during one of his many tours in Japan that he caught the attention of Mick Foley, who sang his praises to ECW promoter Paul Heyman. “Lionheart” Chris Jericho would make his debut in the promotion in 1996, and he was extremely surprised about how familiar the ECW fans were with his work and character despite the fact that he had never made any significant appearances in North America. As Jericho himself explains on the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD, ECW fans really formed a typical internet wrestling community before there was an internet wrestling community to speak of, as most fans frequently traded tapes of all sorts of exotic promotions.

Eventually he would be poached by World Championship Wrestling, where he had a successful run in the company’s burgeoning cruiserweight division. The man of a thousand and four holds feuded extensively with the likes of Rey Misterio Jr. and Dean Malenko throughout 1997, before eventually capturing the company’s television title and moving on to a feud with Goldberg. He would repeatedly mock Goldberg, making fun of his name, his entrance and his undefeated streak, beating several jobbers that looked like Goldberg and eventually claiming a 4-0 record against him.

Despite a strong fan response to the feud, the two men never actually wrestled even though Jericho practically begged for Eric Bischoff to be booked to be squashed by Goldberg at a PPV. This incident added to Jericho’s already rising frustrations with the company’s management, and he eventually made the jump to WWF.

Jericho’s WWF debut was hyped for weeks with a countdown clock, tying in to the fact that it was close to the year 2000. The newly rebranded “Y2J” Chris Jericho finally made his WWF debut by interrupting a promo by The Rock, one of the company’s top stars at the time. He would spend most of his time feuding for the intercontinental championship with the likes of Chyna, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero.

Jericho’s break into the main event scene would come at the 2001 Vengeance PPV. After having successfully defeated the WCW and ECW invaders, the company was left with two world titles. To rectify this, WWF booked a tournament at Vengeance which also involved Kurt Angle, The Rock and Steve Austin. While Austin successfully retained his WWF championship in his semifinal match against Kurt Angle, Jericho won The Rock’s WCW championship in his semifinal match. After interference on both sides, he would eventually defeat Austin to become the first unified champion.

After losing the title to Triple H at Wrestlemania 18, Jericho wouldn’t hold the company’s top title again until 2008, despite the fact that he was involved in feuds with several main eventers. Throughout his WWE run he would hold the intercontinental title a record breaking nine times, as well as the tag team championships with various partners.

…Is This Too?

The similarities between Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho extend well beyond the location they are billed from. Both men have had extended careers on the independent scene, drawing the attention of fans and promoters the world over with their loud charisma and well balanced combination of high flying and technical wrestling.

It seems that at this point in time, Omega is at the ECW stage of Jericho’s career path. After spending extended amounts of time touring Canada and Japan, he is now a regular at America’s third largest promotion, Ring of Honor, where he has been well received by fans and critics alike. However, it seems that the jump to the next level will be much harder for Omega than it was for Jericho, as there is no WCW booker with a bottomless check book out to poach talent.

There is always TNA, although the number of independent talents that the company has signed in the past three years is ridiculously low, especially when compared to the company’s early years. Meanwhile Omega has spent time in WWE’s developmental system, and although he had trouble during his time there the promoters responsible for running DSW while he was there are either fired (Bill DeMott) or enrolled in a bitter lawsuit with the company (Jody Hamilton).

Normally I would say that Omega’s size could be held against him, and while his relatively small stature certainly doesn’t help things, it doesn’t hurt nearly as much as it used to, considering the amount of “small” independent wrestlers who have signed on with WWE, such as Matt Sydal, CM Punk, and soon Bryan Danielson.

So is it fair to compare Kenny Omega to Chris Jericho? At this point in time I think we can all agree that the two have had a very similar career path, and Omega certainly has managed to successfully couple a highly energetic gimmick to a highly energetic wrestling style. If Omega successfully makes the jump to either TNA or WWE, I think that, like Jericho, his success will come down entirely on his ability to adapt. Throughout his career Jericho has had many names, taking to each gimmick like a fish to water. Omega certainly has a lot of raw charisma, and only time will tell if he is able to fully realize that potential.

Kenny Omega challenges Mike Angel for the Canadian 24/7 Championship.