Bravo, Kenny Omega. Bravo.
The Canadian wrestler had a match at Wrestle Kingdom 11 early in January which had the whole wrestling world buzzing, and then he kept his name on everyone’s lips for the rest of the month in a way that just showing up at Fantastica Mania never could have.
It’ll be a long time (if ever) before we know how much of Omega announcing his “stepping away from Japan” to reassess his future was negotiating tactic and how much was storyline. But either way, between his interview with Wrestling Observer Radio yesterday (Jan. 26) and the latest edition of his YouTube show with Matt & Nick Jackson, Being the Elite (embedded above), it appears the angle is just about done.
The interesting wrinkle to this latest message isn’t so much that he plans to re-up with New Japan for another year - he told Dave Meltzer as much on Thursday. It’s that he says we’re going to see a lot more of him working the Young Bucks in 2017, across a variety of platforms:
I won't be going anywhere but New Japan. I'm going to stay with the company that was good to me. I'm going to stay with The Elite, more importantly. 2016 was a big year, we can make 2017 bigger and better. We can only do it together. So us splitting apart, I don't see it in the cards, not this year.
You're going to be seeing more of the Elite as a trio tandem on TV, on the Internet, live in-person more and more and more than you could have ever imagined in 2017. Stay tuned.
Will he be doing more dates for Ring of Honor (ROH), where the Bucks recently re-upped? Is he hinting at New Japan’s North American expansion plans, for which many have advocated Kenny should be the face?
Time will tell. But it seems we can put the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania rumors to rest... at least for this year.
Right?