{"id":22156,"date":"2018-07-14T10:04:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-14T14:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=22156"},"modified":"2018-07-14T10:04:53","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T14:04:53","slug":"kenny-omega-doesnt-need-wwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2018\/07\/14\/kenny-omega-doesnt-need-wwe\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenny Omega Doesn&#8217;t Need WWE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The desire to have <strong>Kenny Omega<\/strong> in WWE has been a wish for years, so many have predicted possible appearance that all came with shortcomings to ride along. You\u2019re probably one of the many that thinks he\u2019ll be a surprise entrant in the next <em><strong>Royal Rumble<\/strong><\/em>, or maybe the <em><strong>RAW<\/strong><\/em> after <em><strong>WrestleMania<\/strong><\/em>, or maybe even <em><strong>SummerSlam<\/strong><\/em>. I\u2019m hoping for neither of those options, or any other in-between. Kenny Omega shouldn\u2019t leave <strong>New Japan Pro Wrestling<\/strong>. In fact, Kenny Omega doesn\u2019t need WWE.<\/p>\n<p>WWE needs Kenny Omega.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s universally agreed that Omega made the right choice when he decided to leave <strong>Deep South Wrestling<\/strong>, a developmental territory for WWE at the time. He was a small guy, didn\u2019t have much of a look to him, but he had potential and he was willing to put in the work. If he stayed with the company, however, he\u2019d be completely different from how we know him today.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-22181\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/kenny-omega.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/kenny-omega.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/kenny-omega-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a simple thing to imagine. He\u2019d have a bland name with no character development, and easily used as a stepping stool for much bigger stars in dark matches while only making sporadic appearances as enhancement on pre-taped events. He would come out to the most generic, recycled theme music, drawing little to no crowd reaction if ever he did make a surprise appearance on <em>Raw<\/em> or <em><strong>SmackDown<\/strong><\/em>. No matter how many times he would throw his arms up in the air while skipping down to the ring, nobody would connect with him, and we wouldn\u2019t have the Kenny Omega we have today.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Heath Slater vs. Kenny Omega - DSW TV 7\/16\/2006\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5j27-4hCamY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>We wouldn\u2019t have the Cleaner, the leader of Bullet Club. Fans would complain about him being wasted potential, and the only excuse that anyone would come up with is that creative has nothing for him. Going to New Japan solved that problem before it could happen. Omega had creative freedom to develop himself and climb to the top without waiting for some higher up to finally take a chance on him.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22184\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22184\" style=\"width: 400px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22184\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/DfTVy_LUwAAPKSt-e1531576824146.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22184\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>He did exactly what he set out to do. He played the image in his mind and thrived. He\u2019s gotten so huge that he is now a household name in the Western side of the world without ever stepping into a major ring belonging to Vince McMahon. Look at what Kenny has done in New Japan.\u00a0He\u2019s a one-time IWGP Intercontinental champion, a two-time Junior Heavyweight champion, he is the inaugural IWGP United States champion, and now he is the current IWGP Heavyweight Champion.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s just listing a few of his accomplishments.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=vvg_DiDQIt4<\/p>\n<p>He is the man, the star of the show, the main event player and WWE is so enamored (or afflicted) by this that they\u2019re attempting everything in their power to get his attention. They\u2019re showing clips of the early stages of his career on the WWE Network. They even promoted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=xLfK0FWdJlE\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">his bout against <strong>Xavier Woods<\/strong> in a Street Fighter<\/a> tournament at E3 on their official website.\u00a0Omega is the football jock, and WWE is suddenly his own personal squad of cheerleaders.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Kenny Omega makes his first appearance on WWE Network in rare WWE Hidden Gem: Deep South Wrestling..\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Tz04yU5KlL0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>All of this glory and emphasis on who he is might be one of two possible scenarios: Either someone very powerful in WWE has a major hunger for Kenny Omega, or they want to own everything about him so they can bury him completely and try to push New Japan down into obscurity.<\/p>\n<p>New Japan Pro Wrestling is Omega\u2019s domain. It\u2019s his playground, his yard and the place where he should continue making a legend of his career. Even if this is his one and only run as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, he\u2019ll still be one of the biggest stars of the company. He\u2019ll always be utilized properly and one that New Japan can always depend on for high quality matches. Don\u2019t hope for a WWE debut.<\/p>\n<p>The Cleaner is already immortal.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_22185\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22185\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-22185\" src=\"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/fcca3fa555c49b31-600x400.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/fcca3fa555c49b31-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2018\/07\/fcca3fa555c49b31-600x400-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22185\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: NJPW<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The desire to have Kenny Omega in WWE has been a wish for years, so many have predicted possible appearance that all came with shortcomings to ride along. You\u2019re probably one of the many that thinks he\u2019ll be a surprise entrant in the next Royal Rumble, or maybe the RAW after WrestleMania, or maybe even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2680,"featured_media":22183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,14,320],"tags":[149,386,188,47],"class_list":["post-22156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-njpw","category-wwe-women","tag-bullet-club","tag-kenny-omega","tag-njpw","tag-wwe"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}