Kenny Omega recently spoke with Uproxx‘s Austin Heiberg, talking about his very successful 2016, main eventing Wrestle Kingdom 11 next month and much more. You can read a few excerpts below:
Kenny Omega comments on taking over as leader of the Bullet Club:
Things really changed over the past year. We used to be just a group of buddies that would just enjoy our time together and make wrestling a more fun work environment. Now, it still is that … We’re still just a group of rowdy guys who do what we want to do when we want to do it, but we’ve actually been a lot more committed to the work end of it.
We know that we lost huge parts of what made Bullet Club whole. Not all of our members are present. When AJ, Gallows, Gun, and even way back when Finn Balor left, people were starting to feel like maybe it wasn’t even Bullet Club anymore. When things like that happen, when your ranks have been damaged a little bit, you can’t just continue to party. It’s not party time anymore. It’s time to crack down and think more about business. So actually, as a group, we’ve been trying to improve as wrestlers and athletes. We’ve been trying to bring more new ideas to the table, just to be better as a whole and to offer more to the product. Personally, I’ve gone far beyond where I thought I’d be after a year.
Of course, it cost a lot of my time and a lot of my health, mentally and physically. I’ve really paid with blood, sweat, tears, my soul … And that was all to make sure that we didn’t look weak anymore. Tama Tonga and his brother, Tanga Loa? They weren’t really in a position to be anything, they were just two dudes! And now, they’re one of the most dominating tag teams in all of New Japan, and they’re getting better as days go by. The Young Bucks, guys that could easily just be junior heavyweights anywhere else on the planet, are main event superstars.
We’re trying to do things where Bullet Club is still the center focus of attention, even though things always go full circle. The nWo had to die. D-Generation X had to die. We’re not through yet. And I think as long as we keep seeing these successes and we keep doing things people never thought we could do, I think the Bullet Club name will continue to grow and we’ll have completely recovered from the losses we had in earlier years.
Omega comments on the big moves this year with worldwide promotions like WWE working with independent talents and promotions:
It seems as though we’re headed towards a monopoly, if I were to speak honestly. WWE is hiring people just to hire them. That’s fine, and I’m happy for whoever’s happy to collect a paycheck from them. A lot of my good friends are now receiving work and receiving money. But sadly, a lot of those people are signing with WWE just to ride the pine. You can’t put all these guys on TV. On one end, you have these mom-and-pop indy superstars getting TV time, and people all around the world are able to see the art of what they do. And in a lot of cases, they’re enjoying it, which is fantastic. I’m really happy about that.
But as everyone gets picked up, as all these independent promotions have to shut down and close their doors because of WWE scooping everyone up, everyone’s going to lose an option. And that guy you saw for that one tournament, you’re not going to see him anymore. You can’t put him on TV, there’s only so much time. So eventually, people are going to run out of options. I want to be one of the options for people. You want to go eat a McDonald’s hamburger? That’s cool. McDonald’s can be good. Do I like them every day? Do I want to eat McDonald’s seven days a week for every meal? Probably not. Eventually, I’m going to want to go someplace for a triple-A grade steak. I may not necessarily have the traffic flow of McDonald’s, but guess what? The quality is there, and it’s for the distinguished wrestling viewer. People who are wanting something more out of their programming. That’s what I want to provide for people in 2017.
