Kenny Omega did an interview with Sports Illustrated to promote Saturday’s AEW Full Gear pay-per-view event where he will be defending the AEW World Heavyweight Title against Adam Page in the headliner. Here are some of the highlights:
Bringing Page into the Bullet Club:
“We don’t just bring just anyone into our group,” Omega says. “If there is one area where the Bucks and I have really honed in, it’s realizing the types of people that have potential for greatness in professional wrestling. This industry has no set of rules or a template for what creates a star. All you need is that raw talent, and it was clear Hangman had that.
“Hangman had a never-say-die attitude, incredible athleticism and a very clean slate in terms of major injuries. He had this southern cowboy-ish nature, and a personality behind the scenes—one that people now see on camera—of a very lovable human being. We knew this guy was going to be an elite performer. And once AEW came along, we knew this company was meant for him.”
Their program:
“Both of us have put a lot of heart and soul into this,” Omega says. “We haven’t been handed scripts or sat in production meetings to build this story. A lot of this comes from reality. Maybe we’ve sensationalized some of the details, but there is a lot of truth to the story we’re telling. There is real-life emotion attached to this clash.”
“After this pay-per-view ends, will I be able to take this story—the one that ‘Hangman’ and I have told—and place it amongst some of my favorites?” Omega says. “Can I hang the ‘Hangman’ story on the mantle alongside the Okada story, the [Kota] Ibushi story, the Moxley story, The Elite story and the Bullet Club Civil War? Will the ‘Hangman’ story belong there? My hope is that it will.”