Kenny Omega Reflects on His Journey & Battling Back From Diverticulitis

During a recent interview with CBC News Manitoba, AEW star Kenny Omega discussed battling back from diverticulitis to make his in-ring return and how he reflects daily on his journey to get to this point. Omega also revealed that he was at peace with the idea of potentially taking a step back from the ring and transitioning to a primarily office role with AEW. Below are some highlights:

Kenny Omega on Reflecting Daily on Working Through and Overcoming His Issues With Diverticulitis

“I would say reflection happens almost on a daily basis for me. I always think about how easy it could have been for this not to have been the case, for me not to have been able to take the match in Vancouver. Um, a lot of it was up in the air every time I kind of got my toes wet, where if there’s pain, do I push past it, or is it just too much? Should I take a step back? And there are times when I felt the answer was you got to push past it. You have to just grin and bear it and get yourself to your new normal. As long as it’s at all an improvement over where you’re at right now. Cuz it was not just tough to be able to perform without the pain in the stomach issues. There was it was it’s difficult to prepare your body to not have that inflammation carried within the gut. It’s difficult to get the right amount of sleep. It’s difficult to have to get the right amount of food when you’re on the road. It’s difficult to get the right amount of rest. How hard do you train? When do you train in what frequency?

“That has all been sort of a self-journey. And I feel like when I finally started to see the answers or at least the answers that felt most correct, it all sort of culminated to this moment where I’m feeling the best that I felt in a long time, and I’m still able to make little improvements and tweaks to what I’ve got going on right now in a positive direction. So yeah, it’s um it’s it’s a good feeling to to find out more of um how to deal with this every every day moving forward. And I’m glad that all of those days of just taking a chance on on the diet, on the training, um on the physio, I feel like being able to be in this position now where we’re speaking like this and I’m about to have a live performance in front of friends and family and fans from the the town that I grew up in, I think it it just made it all worth it.”

Omega on How He Was at Peace With Potentially Stepping Back and Taking a Primarily Office Role With AEW

“I think a big part of it, which helped me with this journey, was that I was at peace with being able to take a huge step back if I needed to. If I needed to have a complete non-physical role within the company and just be an office guy in the back, that is never seen but is still contributing. I was happy to just been involved with this project, that is AEW, with this company and its wonderful fans and athletes. I think that having that sense of calmness and being able to accept the current situation actually helped me put forward more of an effort in the pursuit of getting back what I lost. I feel like if I was in panic mode, I would have kind of ran around like a chicken with its head cut off, not knowing whether to go left or go right. Should I try something new or should I keep really doubling down on what I’m currently doing?

“I think just being honest with myself in this case and just being very open-minded to the fact that things may work if I try something new, but if they don’t work to be able to accept that, okay, I’ve tried everything that I could, and I can’t say that I didn’t try, let’s see what’s next. But, being able to have this smorgasbord of options for me to have available — especially with current-day medical science, supplementation, and all of that, there are all these things that I never had access to years and years ago, which are absolutely for sure helping me in today’s world. I probably would’ve been in a world of hurt without that sort of help, so I’ve had a lot of wonderful people all around me. The team of people that I work with in AEW have always been there to help and always pursuit the next best medical, supplementation, or scientific advancement that might be out there to help my condition.”

On What He Thinks It Will Be Like in Front of the Canadian Crowd

“So, I’ve been very lucky, and a lot of the crowds that I’ve been able to perform in front of or speak in front of or whatever, they’ve all been very warm and welcoming regardless of where I’ve been. Um, you know, I’m not booed because I’m a Canadian in America, thankfully. Those days are far, far gone. But to me, I guess what the part that’s kind of weird is when I walk out in a place like Winnipeg, I was a very I was introverted. I kept to myself, even when I played sports, like, you know, I was a goaltender, so I played team sports, but I was kind of on my own. I did competitive jiu-jitsu. I did beach volleyball, a team of two. You know, I’m not used to humongous team atmospheres because I always purposefully tried to shoulder a lot of self-responsibility in moments. So, for me to go out and have support from, you know, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10,000 people, and it’s Winnipeg. I’ve never been in front of 10,000 people that wanted to cheer me in Winnipeg, or it makes me feel kind of strange, like what did I do, you know? What did I do to deserve this? And have I met any of you people? Like, where did you all come from? It’s a strange feeling, but of course always puts a smile on my face thinking that here are all these friendly people, friendly Manitobans, right? license plate that I’ve never met before in my life, and they’re happy to see me out here. It’s a great feeling. Can’t lie.”

At AEW Dynasty 2026, Kenny Omega seeks to regain the AEW World Title from reigning champion MJF. The event takes place on April 12 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia. It will be broadcast live on pay-per-view.

If using any of the above quotes, please credit CBC News Manitoba, with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.