Kenny Omega Signs With All Elite Wrestling

Kenny Omega officially announced he's signing with All Elite Wrestling on Thursday night at AEW's Double or Nothing Ticket Announcement Party in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Canadian wrestler had spent the last fours years in New Japan Pro Wrestling, first as a junior heavyweight and eventually as the leader of Bullet Club. He reached his highest point in the company at the Dominion event in June 2018 when he defeated Kazuchika Okada in a two-out-of-three-falls match to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. He held the title up until WrestleKingdom 13 on Jan. 4 when he dropped the title to Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of the Tokyo Dome show.

During his tenure in New Japan, Omega's appearances in North America were primarily limited to Ring of Honor and Pro Wrestling Guerrilla events.

Omega's contract with New Japan ended at the end of January, making him a free agent for just one week before signing with AEW. For as massive as the signing is for the young company, it isn't much of a surprise given Omega's connection to Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks and Adam Page as part of The Elite faction. Omega wrestled at Rhodes and the Bucks' first self-promoted event, All In, back on September 1 in a match with Pentagon Jr.

All Elite Wrestling was officially announced as a wrestling promotion on the Jan. 1 episode of Being The Elite, and in the weeks that followed Rhodes, Matt and Nick Jackson were all named executive vice presidents for the company while Jacksonville Jaguars co-owner Tony Khan was named as company president. Both Khan and his billionaire father Shad Khan are financially backing the promotion.

Omega joins an AEW roster that includes the likes of Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Chris Jericho, SoCal Uncensored, Adam Page, Pac (WWE's Neville) Joey Janela, Jimmy Havoc, Fenix, Pentagon Jr and Britt Baker.

In an interview with Jim Ross on this week's The Ross Report, Rhodes described the type of wrestlers the company is looking for as they continue to build their roster.

"We're looking for fresh, more than kind of the equity-garnered individual who has perhaps popped around on various television shows already," Rhodes said. "We're looking for someone who hasn't been seen, that's kind of the directive. Of course there's folks like Chris Jericho, just an absolute star — wrestling's freaking rock star, he's done it all and seen it all. But I want have the juxtaposition of somebody on that level seen with somebody who our audience (is) maybe seeing for the very first time ever."

AEW's first wrestling event, Double or Nothing, takes place on May 25 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.