Kenny Omega made his long-awaited return to the ring on this week’s AEW Dynamite, teaming with The Young Bucks to defeat Andrade El Idolo, Rush and Dragon Lee in the opening round of the AEW World Trios Championship tournament. Omega was coming off of multiple injuries after stepping away from the ring last year and still didn’t look to be 100% given he was still wearing an arm brace and a compression top, while Don Callis continued to remind everyone of his recovery while on commentary. Omega cut a promo for the fans in Charleston after the cameras stopped rolling and admitted he still wasn’t 100% and that it would take time for him to get back to competing for singles championships again.
“I thought, hey, with a rare main event slot tonight, I might as well take the microphone and say a couple words to you guys because I’ve been gone for quite some time,” Omega said. “If I do it in this format, I don’t have to worry about how much time I take. I don’t have to worry about how tired or hurt I am. I can just speak to you guys like a normal human being because really, that’s all I am. So for the past seven, eight, nine months, whatever it’s been, it’s been pretty grueling. Many times, I questioned myself. Am I really gonna be able to come back to AEW and perform at the level of these professional wrestlers?”
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“Certainly, it’s gonna take me a while to catch up to these guys,” he continued. “It might be a while before I’m able to challenge for a singles title again. But this very much is a work in progress, and I’m very glad that all of you are joining me on this journey. Don’t get it confused, however. I’m not a good guy. I might even cheat to win every now and then. But one thing that I will say is when we’re in this ring, you’re getting a genuine Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, an elite performance from the genuine Young Bucks and Kenny Omega. We’re not pretending to be somebody that we’re not. We’re not a tribute act. We’re not a parody. We’re not selfish, and we’re not in this for selfish means and for selfish gains,” he said.
Omega went on to say, “We are here to leave a legacy, and that legacy isn’t titles. It’s not even match ratings. It’s not even how much money we make for our families and ourselves. It is changing the world via changing [the] wrestling world and the way that you guys consume it. So maybe heck, you don’t like six-man tags. That’s fine because we’re gonna give you the greatest singles matches. We’re gonna give you guys the greatest hardcore matches, mixed matches, women’s matches, all different kinds of matches. It’s going to be a smorgasbord of wrestling. That was always the mission statement, and as long as The Elite are here, we will make sure that you guys get that variety every time we perform. Win, lose, or draw, you’re gonna get our greatest effort. Win, lose, or draw, taping, athletic tape, medical devices or not, you’re gonna get Kenny Omega, too. Somehow, by a stroke of luck and because these guys are better than you even know that they are, they’re incredible, we were able to survive tonight. We’re alive in this tournament.”
