Number One With A Bullet: Kenny Omega Shares His Fear Wrestling Is Heading Towards A Monopoly

[ExodusNirvana]

When I talked with Beretta recently, he had this to say about you: “I think Kenny is unreal. He’s the first foreigner to win the G1 Climax, which is huge. If New Japan is going to expand, he’s the guy to bring it to English-speaking countries.” How do you feel receiving that kind of praise from your peers?

Having respect from your peers is always the coolest thing. You never want to hear from guys that you work with that they hate working with you, or that you’re a dikkhead. You try to balance it, know what I mean? You want to be someone the company can rely on, but you also want to be a man of the people as well. I’m trying, in my journey, to be that guy. I don’t want to lose sight of being someone that the people can relate to.

I think a lot of champions in the past, in New Japan especially … There comes a separation. Okada, he was just a TNA young boy. He got thrust into this main event situation, and suddenly he’s making millions of dollars, dressing all fancy, having a ton of interviews, sponsor meetings, photoshoots, commercials … There comes a clear separation. He’s too different from everyone else now. Even as a champion, I don’t want to lose that connection. Not just with the fans, but with the locker room as well.

If we can talk about the wrestling world at large, 2016 saw unprecedented cooperation between large companies and smaller independents with events like the Cruiserweight Classic and the recently announced United Kingdom Championship Tournament. Where do you think we’re going from here?

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.

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Number One With A Bullet: Kenny Omega Shares His Fear Wrestling Is Heading Towards A Monopoly

 

[PlayerNinety_Nine]

He's not wrong

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

I truly believe their long term strategy is for globally, WWE Network to be the platform for all wrestling...They will likely form some sort of partnership with ROH eventually, they've clearly formed alliances in Europe UK and India, and I could see them simply signing top NJPW and NOAH wrestlers until they get weak and form a partnership as well. Eventually, WWE raw and SmackDown will be the majors, and the rest will be farm system or college.

They are digitally doing what WWF did in the 80s.

 

[jackswstd]

Monopolies are never a good thing IMO, and homegrown WWE guys will always be top priority. There are exceptions but not many.

 

[Mantis Toboggan M.D.]

I truly believe their long term strategy is for globally, WWE Network to be the platform for all wrestling...They will likely form some sort of partnership with ROH eventually, they've clearly formed alliances in Europe UK and India, and I could see them simply signing top NJPW and NOAH wrestlers until they get weak and form a partnership as well. Eventually, WWE raw and SmackDown will be the majors, and the rest will be farm system or college.

They are digitally doing what WWF did in the 80s.

When and how did you get that hall of fame tag?

 

[Scholar]

Monopolies are never a good thing IMO, and homegrown WWE guys will always be top priority. There are exceptions but not many.

I don't think that's the case anymore. As pointed above wwe is using any star from any company to help sell tickets/network buys. Aka farming all the "minor" leagues for stars. It saves them a lot of money if other companies are investing to develop stats and they can just sign them at any time

 

[boriquaking]

I read this earlier.


I understand what people could be fearful about, the 00's seemed like it would just be the WWE.

People will always want to wrestle and break into the biz.

We have ROH AND LU now, and people are watching.

Its a bit of a catch 22, people gotta eat doe.

 

[Playaz Eyez]

Dude ain't wrong at all.

 

[prophecypro]

I mean it already has and now they're just making sure it stays that way with these indie partnerships