Kenny Omega has a vivid memory of the last match he had in NJPW.
The Cleaner spoke with NJPW’s website to promote his upcoming showdown with Will Ospreay at WrestleKingdom 17, which also saw Omega reflect on his loss in the main event of WrestleKingdom 13 to the great Hiroshi Tanahashi. Omega also explains why he decided to depart Japan after that loss and head to America for the launch of AEW. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Talks his loss to Tanahashi in the main event of WrestleKingdom 13:
It was hard for me to look at myself in the mirror after Wrestle Kingdom 13, after making this company worldwide, really bringing it to the forefront, and not recognizing who was looking back. Here I was thinking that I was the hero. I was the one who saved this company, I was the one who was going to take us to the promised land. I was going to main event in Madison Square Garden and show everyone in the world, the magic, the prestige, of Strong Style pro-wrestling. It wasn’t meant to be, was it? And I think the part that hurt the most was that after I lost, I could see tears in the eyes of everyone in attendance. And I thought, ‘I know how you feel. This hurts for me too, this is painful’. But when I looked hard, they were tears of joy. They were happy to see me lose. They were happy to see the belt move on to Tanahashi. That’s when I realized that they didn’t really understand the vision. Maybe they just weren’t ready. So I thought ‘yeah. Now is a good time to disappear. Now is a good time for this company to know the true meaning of loss’.
Why he decided to leave and throw himself fully into AEW:
You know, we always hear like ‘you’re the best in the world,’ ‘greatest matches of all time’. But maybe somebody else is the best in the world to somebody else. But to me, to truly the best, you have to be the best in all styles. And to me, I’d never truly challenged North American professional wrestling. Not whole heartedly. I thought ‘for all the people that think I’m the best now, all the people that think I’m talented now, just you wait, because I’m going to kill it in America. I’m going to show everyone exactly why they call me the Best Bout Machine. I’m going to show you exactly why I was able to take small promotions and make them global. I’m going to take an upstart promotion that nobody knows existed, and turn it into the greatest competition to the greatest pro-wrestling promotion that anyone has seen in America for the past 50, 60, 70 years’.