Kenny Omega says that he misses the days of his just being a performer in the wrestling industry. The AEW EVP recently spoke with NJPW ahead of his appearance at Power Struggle tomorrow and spoke about his own experiences balancing being an executive and being an onscreen performer, something NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi is also dealing with. You can see highlights below, per Fightful:
On balancing his responsibilities: “I would never wish it upon anybody else in the world, trust me. I miss those days of rolling up to an arena with just my carry case, my little bag, that had my gear in it, and focusing on that match, that one performance. The performance was just about me. Instead, I’m at the arena days before, trying to figure out, ‘How’re we gonna make this work? How do we make this guy’s entrance work? How do we make sure all the entrance videos are formatted? How do we make sure the extras and the talent are fed? How do we make sure that they’re healthy? How do we make sure they we keep them healthy? What do we do if something goes wrong?’
“There’s always, it’s a balancing act of a million things, and if you’re not 100% confident in your wrestling ability and if you’re not completely dedicated and passionate, not only about the success of what you do out there, but the success of the entire company and maybe even the state of professional wrestling, you can’t do it. It’s a terrible undertaking. As much as the Young Bucks have betrayed me as of recently, I couldn’t have done it without them. It was really a group effort. But Tanahashi now, doing it all by himself with the help of a lot of talented people here, I understand the burden that it weighs on [Tanahashi].”
On Tanahashi handling both sides of his work: “For him to still be an active professional wrestler, for him to still be in any title picture is nothing short of a miracle, and it really allowed for me to step back now that I’m resting from a serious illness, and I’m thinking man, was my all of this on the same plate, is that what drove me to being this way? The answer’s probably, ‘Yeah,’ short answer of that. But I mean, I did it for the state of wrestling, and I did it because I wanted to help people, help fans. I just wanted to help unite people all over the world, lovers of professional wrestling, people that have never watched wrestling and maybe could find a love for it, and did I sacrifice a bit of my physical and mental health for it? Sure, but I’m still standing. I think, much like Tanahashi, it’s our passion that fuels us.”
