Report: Kenny Omega's First Impact World Championship Defense Announced

AEW's Kenny Omega made history on Sunday night by beating Rich Swann at Impact's Rebellion [...]

By Connor Casey

AEW's Kenny Omega made history on Sunday night by beating Rich Swann at Impact's Rebellion pay-per-view, becoming the first man to hold both the AEW and Impact World Championships at the same time. Dave Meltzer reported via Wrestling Observer Radio that Omega is expected to have his first title defense at Impact's Under Siege event on May 15, airing on the Impact Plus streaming service. He could not determine who Omega's challenger would be, but pointed out that he'll be present for the latest set of television in Nashville. He also pointed out Omega will have a "big defense" at the Slammiversary pay-per-view in July.

Impact has already built up some hype for their next pay-per-view, teasing that a number of recently-released WWE wrestlers and top stars from New Japan Pro-Wrestling would be appearing at the show. The first teaser included Samoa Joe, Chelsea Green, Mickie James, Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito. The company used a similar tactic for last year's event, but only a few of the wrestlers who were teased (The Good Brothers, Eric Young, Heath, EC3) actually showed up.

As for his AEW World Championship reign, it's still not clear who "The Cleaner" will face at AEW's Double or Nothing pay-per-view next month. His former tag partner Adam "Hangman" Page is currently the No. 1 contender in the singles division rankings, but he now finds himself in a feud with Brian Cage.

AEW president Tony Khan explained on an episode of Renee Paquette's Oral Sessions back in January how the AEW/Impact crossover came about.

"It was Kenny's idea," Khan said. "He asked me about it, and I love good ideas. I don't do every idea. But this is something that Kenny brought up that I thought was a great idea. He put a lot of thought and time into this. I give 100 percent of the credit to Kenny.

"Don Callis and Kenny have a very close relationship and, you know, I think that was behind it, but I also think Kenny believed that Don would be a very powerful advocate for him; the role of a really, really strong heel manager for Kenny as the top heel in the territory," he added. "Really, I think Kenny is the top heel in wrestling right now. I think that's what people wanted to see... I think people were really ready to see this Kenny Omega. He was excited to present it. He put so much thought into innovating and changing. That's why I think the two best wrestlers in the world are Kenny and Jon [Moxley]."

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