Kenny Omega admits it’s not an easy task to balance being a professional wrestler and an executive vice president at the same time.
All Elite Wrestling’s Kenny Omega was a recent guest on The Sessions with Renee Paquette to discuss a wide variety of subjects. When asked about working as an Executive Vice President in the company, Omega admits he misses the days when he could show up to the venue and only have to worry about his match.
“It makes me miss the days when I could just roll up with my carry bag and be like, ‘Alright, let’s just think about the match that we have tonight.’ And then the match is over, and okay, that’s it. That’s where the stress starts and ends with your own performance,” Kenny Omega said. “There’s so much more that goes into it. And though our various rules they do have limits, of course, I mean, we don’t do everything.
“We have more of an infrastructure, and we have people that do have roles and jobs within the company. So it’s not like we are as busy as we were in year one. However, there are still things that we have to do all the time. And there are still things that prevent us from being the people that we used to be.
“For the people that came before us and had roles in major wrestling companies but still had to go out on TV and pretend like yeah, this is the entire reason that I’m here is for this one performance, but they had so many other things on their plate that you never did see that wasn’t for the public to see or even understand or even hear about.
“These are sort of like legends that get told way decades later on down the line. I have so much more respect for them. For the people that were actively involved on the show, but then also were counted on by the people on their team to provide in some other way that took a lot of their times and their schedule.”
When asked if being an EVP has affected his relationship with the rest of the AEW roster, Omega said he’s not sure about that.
“It would be sad if people are pretending to be nice to me because of it. I hope that’s not the case,” Kenny Omega said. “The Bucks and I we’ve always had an open-door policy. It’s like, hey, if we can do something for anybody, our door is always open, and just come to us with whatever woe that you may have backstage.
“The last thing I would want to do is kind of create a divide. Where it’s like, ‘Hey, you guys are over here doing your thing. We’re over here. Because we’re what? More important?’ I don’t ever want to feel that way, and it’s never been that way. We’re just boys in the locker room. We don’t try to exude any sort of aura about us that’s like, ‘Hey, we’re a suit in the office.’ It’s definitely not how we try to present ourselves.”
When asked about his current contract situation with AEW, Omega didn’t give much away on that front.
“I don’t know. What’s the deal, right?” Kenny Omega said, playing coy.
But when asked what he wants the rest of his career to look like, Omega gave a much more insightful answer.
“Wow. Sometimes the first thing that pops into your mind is probably how you really feel. And the first thing that came to my mind wasn’t a venue; it wasn’t a title. It wasn’t some kind of accolade. I feel like whatever it is that I can contribute to wrestling,” Kenny Omega said. “I want to be able to help people in the next generation realize their potential as quickly as possible or quicker than I was able to.
“If I can help give anyone advice or to help push them into a certain direction and can lead to something good for them career-wise down the road. That is where I’d like to see myself. I don’t feel like I have too many goals or aspirations of my own anymore.”
When asked if achieving everything he wanted to do changes his mindset going forward, Omega admits that it has.
“It does because I feel like, am I wasting my time here? Do I not even deserve my position if I’m not looking for some sort of measure of success for myself? Am I being ungrateful almost? So those thoughts even still fill my head a little bit because I felt that when I was motivated to win the G1,” Kenny Omega revealed. “When I was motivated to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship or win the Match of the Year award or win the Technical Wrestler of the Year Award, or even just throw out a random thing like, boy, wouldn’t it be nice if I can somehow win PWI 500?
“It got to a point where I was just kind of creating goals to achieve just to have something, and I guess as the checklist started to fill up, and I’m so thankful, and I feel so fortunate that I was able to it became so much less about me and became more about well I’ve got this resume now. And I know that I’m breaking down, and I know that there are people that have ten years on me or 15 years on me.
“They have all this time to work with, and they can much easier, with much less of a struggle, get to where I am today. And maybe I can save them some mental anguish. Maybe I can save them being away from their family a couple more years if I can help them a little bit. And that’s the sort of position that I feel that I’m in right now.”
READ MORE: Kenny Omega Reflects On Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match Mishap
What do you make of Kenny Omega’s comments? Do you think he’ll sign a new contract with All Elite Wrestling this year? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
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