Kenny Omega says he’s “done” if he suffers another major setback.
Omega has been sidelined with a number of injuries since he lost the AEW World Championship to Hangman Page at Full Gear 2021. He has had multiple procedures since then, and he remains engaged in the rehabilitation process.
On Twitter, a clip of Omega discussing his recovery starting gaining a lot of traction, as it seemed like the former AEW World Champion would hang up his boots if he was faced with another substantial obstacle.
He made the comments during an appearance on the CEO Gaming Twitch channel, and “The Cleaner” went on to elaborate that the process of his journey back to the ring has been difficult, as he’s trying to retrain his body while believing that critics are seemingly waiting for him to fail once he returns.
“Look if I get another major setback, that’s it, I’m done,” said Omega. “Because I can’t do this ever again. It’s like two times, three times a day, really painful rehab. And without even knowing what’s it gonna be like once I get back in the ring. I have no clue. It’s scary, actually. And you see some people that come back to the ring and you’re just happy to see them back. And I think that there’s a different kind of expectation put on me and I think that anything less than what they’re expecting, which is already unrealistic, is going to lead to a lot of ridicule, which is what I get every day anyway. So you can probably understand and imagine how difficult it is struggling twice, three times a day, trying to get things to work that never maybe worked before and trying to reroute things in your brain to get around the things that aren’t gonna heal.
“People think, ‘Oh Kenny’s hurt, he took time off. Snap your fingers, I come back 100%.’ Life doesn’t work that way. Bodies don’t work that way, athletes don’t work that way. It’s very difficult to formulate this plan and to execute it, and we’ll see how I do. But in either case, I’m ready for the hundreds to thousands of messages that will follow hoping that I fall into a hole and die.”
Later in the stream, Omega stated that he wants to come back and remind everyone about the importance of storytelling while hopefully still putting on remarkable matches.
“I think peak satisfaction for a lot of the fans are when they do get those storylines and those storyline payoffs,” said Omega. “So maybe some people have forgotten about that, but I would like to have the chance to remind them about that when I come back while still hopefully being able to deliver in the ring.”
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