Kenny Omega On What Hurt Most In His Lights Out Match at Full Gear, Addresses Criticism Of It

– Kenny Omega spoke with Wrestling Observer Radio and addressed his Lights Out match with Jon Moxley at AEW Full Gear. The “unsanctioned” match earned a lot of praise but also had its share of critics who thought it went too far. Omega addressed that reaction and also discussed how he dealt with the hardcore parts, as well as the most painful move he did in the match.

Highlights from the discussion are below:

On people who didn’t like the match: “If someone — look, I’m a fan of heavy metal and rock music. But if someone just out of nowhere played me the most heavy death metal, something I’d never seen or heard before, it may not be my cup of tea right off the bat. But hey, if I hear just how technical the guitars can be, and how fast the drumming is, you know what I mean? It may be my cup of tea. I may say, ‘This is the craziest, coolest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.’ But for some people it may just sound like noise. I get it, and that goes for any type of wrestling style. A lot of people also don’t like my really long matches with Okada, and I get it. And that’s exactly why when I say to people or people ask me, ‘What would you suggest as a match to show people of yours,’ I would never say the hour draw. I would never say the best of three falls, because I know that’s just too much to digest in one sitting. So it’s just different strokes for different folks, and I don’t take offense either way. But I was really happy to hear comments of things like, ‘That’s one of the best hardcore matches I’ve ever seen,’ you know, ‘Match of the year.’ Some people would say it’s their favorite match of all-time and that’s awesome. If I could elicit that kind of reaction from people, I’m really happy. And I’m glad that I challenged this match style, and again this isn’t like a spoiler alert but I won’t be doing it very often. But yeah, I’m glad I did it. I don’t think I ever could have done that in New Japan or probably not even in WWE if I went there. It was something special to AEW, and I’m really glad I was able to do it. I’m really proud of it.”

On how he dealt with it physically: “One of the things, and I don’t wanna expose too many secrets, but a lot of people suggested they cut the barbs or to shave them down or whatever. But after speaking to a couple deathmatch dudes, you leave them because it’s better to be pierced by them than to be scratched by them. Because those are the ones that leave the actual scars. So they’re just really tiny little holes that healed really easily. I mean, right now it just looks like I have a bad case of acne, but that’s it. And you know, like little tiny cuts in your hands and stuff, that sucks. Because even when you wash your hands with soap it stings, you know? It’s just little annoying stuff. The worst thing by far, because everything that we talked about, we had so many ideas on the table. We made sure that we were completely capable of doing everything. We’ve talked about this before, like, I’ve never done a stunt in any match that I knew — I’ve never done a stunt that I was second-guessing myself on. I always have complete, 100% faith that I can complete the stunt safely. And in this case, it was the exact same with this match too. We went over everything we were gonna do and we knew that with our talent level, we could pull this off without injuring each other, or getting injured ourselves.”

On the thing that hurt worst in the match: “The one thing that I didn’t know, because I had never done it before and I didn’t know how to expect it, but I underestimated it, was the taking the bumps on the planks in the ring. Missing that Phoenix Splash hurt so bad. [laughs] It was one of the worst bumps I’ve ever taken in my life. I’m telling you. A lot of people said that ‘Oh, whatever, the ring’s got a spring in it and it’s no different than bumping on the mat itself.’ No, it was terrible. It was one of the worst things I’ve done. Especially because I think with the mat folded over, that’s where my hands were. So I couldn’t quite get my hands down to brace my fall, so pretty much my face came down and broke all of it. So the whole right side of my face — luckily I always turn my head on a 450 [splash] or a Phoenix. But it was super, super swollen. It hurt bad. And that was just me being unfamiliar with anything like that. And it’s one of those things where you’re not going to practice it. You can’t. You just have to have faith in your ability, and of course I know I can do a Phoenix. And it just — it hurt. I’m never going to do it again. That’s it.”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Wrestling Observer Radio with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.