It doesn’t take much to get wrestling fans all riled up.
Kenny Omega, arguably one of the best wrestlers in the world, recently gave an interview to Sportskeeda. That, in and of itself, is not a problem. Hardcore wrestling fans around the world love the guy and he’s heavily involved in AEW, so it makes sense to interview him. But the interview dropped the day after NXT launched on the USA Network and he unloaded on them.
The comments Omega made that have everyone buzzing should be left to speak for themselves.
If these guys were in the same show as me, they’d be in the dark match. They’d be in the opening match of my main event match.
You wanna call that a war, you wanna call that competition? Go ahead. Maybe it’s fun for you to do. That’s cool. But we’re different planets. And you’re going to see that right away, when you see 10000+ arenas sold out. You’re going to see smiles on fans’ faces. You’re going to see real stars. Not developmental talent but real stars appearing on your television sets, every week.
For all intents and purposes, Omega just said the men and women at NXT aren’t fit to carry his boots.
If I were working in NXT and I had spent years doing everything in my power to make it the best promotion that I possibly could, I might be a little miffed at Mr. Omega for such condescending remarks. NXT star Dominik Dijakovic sure was when he tweeted his response to Omega.
https://twitter.com/DijakovicWWE/status/1174760846708412421
It’s easy to get upset about Omega’s comments until you remember that this is wrestling and literally everything is potentially a work. Well, until someone can prove it isn’t. Even then, it’s still probably a work just with convincing enough evidence to make you believe in kayfabe just a little bit longer.
NXT and AEW were always going to go head-to-head, regardless of when they air. The most logical comparison is between those two promotions; they’ll have similar styles, content and calibre of wrestlers with similar star power.
Let’s assume for a moment that Kenny Omega actually meant what he said, talking about the “stars” of AEW is questionable at best. It’s a given that AEW has some incredible people involved in their promotion, both in the ring and behind the camera. Any conversations about the best in the business has to include Omega, The Young Bucks, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D., Private Party, Hangman Page and more. But Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes, and maybe Jon Moxley are their only household names. For all of his talent and skill, Kenny Omega is not a household name for the average wrestling fan. If you’re going to run a weekly wrestling program that sells out arenas every time you need household names.
Why do you think AEW’s first champion is Chris Jericho and not Kenny Omega?
Adam Cole. Johnny Gargano. Mia Yim. This is just a sampling of the talented, veteran wrestlers stepping through the ropes in NXT. Some of them have been in the business almost as long as Omega has. They’ve all had unforgettable matches throughout their careers. Omega is right, though. NXT is, at its heart, a developmental brand and that’s a great thing, it’s turned new talents like Bianca Belair and Velveteen Dream into wrestlers with greater name cache than a large percentage of the AEW roster.
Shoot or work, Omega’s comments are interesting to say the least. They could just be an attempt to stoke the fires of a “war” that draws attention to both brands, an attempt to take wrestling back to the days of WWE vs. WCW. Healthy competition breeds success for both sides and someone like Omega is savvy enough to get that. WWE is already working to up their NXT game.
Honestly, it’s not hard to imagine that wrestling Twitter would have looked a lot like this had it existed during the Monday Night Wars.
Omega does come across as condescending and obnoxious, which was probably the point. Naturally, wrestling internet smarks took the promo and ran with it. AEW has put on some great pay-per-views but running a successful weekly program is a completely different animal. That’s something NXT has been doing for a long time now, developmental brand or not. AEW has incredible potential but it’s still just potential. Declare victory once your new favorite show has been putting out regular content for a decade or two, not before it even begins.
While in conversation with talkSPORT, The Young Bucks also chimed in on the question of NXT versus AEW, though in a much more logical and well-reasoned fashion than Omega. They very accurately pointed out the potential pitfalls of NXT going to two hours and talked about the realities of AEW Dynamite’s debut. Their comments are a stark contrast to the tone of Omega’s, which were far more confrontational and aggressive. That being said, The Young Bucks were speaking as the VPs of a company where Omega was working an angle for a promo. It’s kind of like comparing the current version of Triple H to the Attitude Era version of Triple H
While it’s easy to understand why NXT is the target of this specific part of Omega’s promo, it’s also short sighted for both sides. There’s a lot more wrestling around the world than just NXT and AEW. A lot of it is damn good. Both promotions need to remember that the competition in the wrestling world doesn’t begin and end with them.
Cody Rhodes and company proved that before AEW was ever a thing.
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