Kenny Omega made his long-awaited return to New Japan Pro-Wrestling earlier this year by beating Will Ospreay for the IWGP United States Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 17. The match was seen by many as an instant classic, but after a tag team match with Kazuchika Okada the following day Omega returned to the United States and has only defended his new title in AEW. He and Ospreay have their rematch scheduled for this Sunday at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023, and “The Cleaner” seemed to up the ante during an interview with TSN this week.
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When asked why he returned to New Japan, Omega explained, “I felt like there were pieces of unfinished business. I sort of left the company in a state of needing people to fill my shoes. I had assumed a lot of responsibility in that promotion, I had pretty much wrestled in all, if not most, of the big matches on my way out the door. And I knew that if I left the last thing I’d want is for the company to be in a bad position with someone not ready to assume that main event role. I thought I had two likely candidates that could hold the reins, keep the fort together and put forth a very unique but New Japan-worthy effort in Switchblade (Jay White, who is now under AEW contract) and Will Ospreay.”
“As someone who made Japan my home and for something I had made so important to me (New Japan), I had always kept up with things even while I was doing AEW,” he continued. “I felt like they weren’t doing enough. Maybe they needed a trial by fire to see, by example, one more time, what it is that I’m asking them what is required of them to be the face of the company, to be the driving force behind the company.”
He then stated that if Ospreay be unable to beat him on Sunday, he doesn’t see a need to return to Japan — “…So love me or not, hate me or not, I’m the benchmark. I know I’m the benchmark. So Will has to step up his game, and he has to show something much different than what he showed at Tokyo Dome because now we’re in Canada, and now this is probably going to be his last chance to win his belt back. If he doesn’t, I really have no obligation to go back to Japan either, as much as I’d like to. So they just may lose one of their most prized possessions for an undisclosed amount of time. So it’s a very big match for Will.”
