Kenny Omega Says There’s A ‘Very Short Shelf Life’ To His In-Ring Style

In an interview with CBC, Kenny Omega admitted that there is a ‘short shelf life’ to his in-ring style but that he pushes himself to be the best anyway. Here are highlights:

On pushing himself to be the best he can be: “I recognized that we all break down. There’s a very short shelf life to this sort of style. You burn the candle at both ends, and all you have to look back at on your body of work is that you pushed yourself athletically, right? Maybe you can pop in a tape, a DVD, a file or whatever at some point in time, say, like, ‘Hey, guys, look, I used to do this back in the day.’ But for me, that wasn’t enough. I was dedicating everything to it. I had lost a lot in my personal life to wrestling. I wanted to make these connections both with the fans and my comrades [in] wrestling, right, my workmates. I didn’t want to do them a disservice by going through all of this mental preparation, this physical preparation, just to have a match that isn’t appreciated in the grand scheme of things.”

On trying to be the best storyteller: “That was sort of the goal for me as a performer. How can I mix everything that I’ve learned from the different styles that I know in wrestling, from the tapes that I studied, from the pop culture references, culture in general and media media? How do I take all of these things and how do I become the best storyteller I can be?”

On his critics: “The styles of music, styles of acting, styles of film that were very unconventional were probably mocked when they first were introduced. So when I see people, wrestling purists, that are upset about me not wrestling the way that they think wrestling should be, or wrestling the way that they grew up knowing… I don’t take that as a personal insult. [If someone says,] ‘Hey, I don’t like what you’re doing because I grew up watching wrestling in this way,’ totally fine. I can completely understand that — I even respect it. I do have a very deep respect for what wrestling used to be; otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing it right now. But I think when there’s an opportunity to do something else with it or to maximize the opportunity with a particular person or persons to really create a memorable experience, I’m going to go that route.”

On the type of negative reactions he hates: “I feel disappointed in our wrestling culture when that happens. If you don’t do things the way that I do them, then insert personal insults here, right? Racial comments here or sexual orientation slander here. It’s a shame that things sort of automatically drift toward that direction.”

On the Golden Lovers being embraced by the LGBTQ community: “I’m beyond proud and so happy that it became something that the LGBTQ community could take to and enjoy. And I’m glad they felt that it was a great representation of that. All of these [gay] stories in the past and up to this point, it’s always a point of ridicule and it’s always presented as comedic. And some of the most creative people, some of the most artistic people, some of the most talented people, friendly people, kindhearted people that I’ve ever met are part of that community. I wanted to show that two very talented wrestlers, some of the most talented currently going — possibly, hopefully in a conversation for the most talented of all time — can represent that.”