Between his show-closing moment in the Stadium Stampede, his stellar AAA Mega Championship match against Sammy Guevara and his numerous AEW World Tag Team Championship defenses alongside Hangman Page, Kenny Omega seems to have regained his rhythm in All Elite Wrestling in recent months. Ahead of hosting a panel at FunimationCon this past week, Omega sat down ComicBook.com to discuss his recent in-ring work as well as an exciting new signing in AEW’s Women’s Division.
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Omega said he feels he’s hitting his stride physically even though a) he’s still dealing with a torn labrum and b) wrestling inside Daily’s Place Amphitheater is no cake walk considering Florida’s summer heat.
“It’s so difficult to go out there in those conditions that we have right now where it’s so humid, the air is so thick,” Omega said. “We’re in these outdoors arenas with no air conditioning, we’re talking a hundred degree-plus setting. And a very thick air that you can’t really breathe in well and it forces you to push yourself to a pace that the human body can’t normally keep up with in training. It’s like trying to do what you would normally do, but in high altitude, picture it that way. Where your body is tired and you push that to limit is so different, to get there is so much more of a task.
Omega said in recent weeks he’s been able to push himself to a new level to handle the heat, despite the fact that he’s beat up.
Behind the scenes one of Omega’s biggest responsibilities is running the AEW Women’s Division. The division recently announced a brand new signing in the zombified Abadon, who made a huge impact back in mid-June when she debuted on AEW Dynamite and made quick work of Anna Jay. Omega said what Abadon brings to the table is what he likes best about pro wrestling.
“I enjoy wrestling. I enjoy doing it as a living. I feel very blessed to be able to do it as a career. But what I like most about wrestling, isn’t the actual wrestling. I liked the ability to tell any kind of story that you want,” Omega said. “I like the fact that wrestling doesn’t necessarily have to be like mixed martial arts, where it’s always about just who wins. It doesn’t matter how you look, how you act, just if you win. In wrestling and you can have different characters, different motivations, you don’t necessarily have to fight for a title, you don’t necessarily have to have the strongest win/loss record to stand out to people.
“When I see a character like Abadon, for someone again who love and talking horror movies, and I see someone who’s committed themselves 100% to a character that appeals to people that are interesting, aside from wrestling. I know that that’s like a real diamond in the rough and something that I want to see develop something that I want to nurture. And I think that for people out there that want to be entertained through things aside from just wrestling, Abadon checks a lot of real cool boxes and I’m super excited to see her development.”
The former world champion also praised the amount of work she has put in into building that persona.
“That was a creation from the mind of the person themselves,” he said. “Anyone could easily just say, ‘Oh, you’re a wrestler. Okay. We’re going to make you a zombie, okay?’ And if they’re not into it, if they’re not feeling it, you see that it projects through the screen and you can call it out right away, and it sucks. But for Abadon, for that character to be her, that is something that she wants to do. That is something that she feels comfortable in her own skin doing. You see the commitment behind the performance and that is so important.”
