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New Japan Pro Wrestling superstar Kenny Omega is arguably the hottest non-WWE performer in the world of Professional Wrestling today. Having made his debut in the year 2000, the Winnipeg born native has definitely had his fair share of ups and downs in the Pro Wrestling industry.
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After several years of hard work and dedication in this business, it is safe to say that Omega’s passion for Professional Wrestling has finally paid off, given the fact that he can proudly call himself one of the very few gaijin competitors to have won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
Despite being a Canadian born, Omega has pretty much found all of his Pro Wrestling success in Japan, where he has competed for several top promotions in DDT, AJPW, and NJPW over the course of this past decade and is a former WWE developmental rookie, Omega has pretty much competed for every respectable and notable wrestling promotion around the globe.
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Ever since his arrival to New Japan Pro Wrestling, Omega has broken several records and has already achieved numerous major accomplishments as well and his six-star performances against NJPW top dog Kazuchika Okada have been nothing short of outstanding. Billed as ‘The Best Bout Machine’, Kenny Omega has surely come a very long way ever since making his debut in 2000, however, there are indeed several unknown facts that even most of Kenny Omega’s devoted fans don’t know about.
Therefore, here are surprising facts that even Kenny Omega’s most die-hard fans might not know about.
#10 Kenny Omega started wrestling at the age of 15
In today’s Pro Wrestling world, winning a championship at a very young age doesn’t seem to be too much of a problem, for instance, look at 10-year-old Nicholas who recently won the Raw Tag Team Championships along with Braun Strowman or on a rather more serious tone, WWE NXT Superstar Tyler Bate winning the WWE UK Championship at the age of 19 is another big achievement as well.
While growing up, Kenny Omega initially started training with a local hometown promotion of his named Top Rope Championship Wrestling (TCW) which is solely based in Winnipeg and during the initial stages of his career, Omega was taken under the wing of TCW promoter Bobby Jay, with whom Omega previously met while working at a local IGA store.
During his training years under Bobby Jay, a 16-year-old Tyson Smith eventually went on to develop his wrestling gimmick of a Hawaiian surfer Kenny Omega, however, that gimmick was eventually replaced with an Otaku Gamer gimmick further developed from the Street Fighter game.
#9 Omega is the inaugural IWGP US Heavyweight Champion
After unsuccessfully challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the second time at Dominion 6.11, Kenny Omega was in a desperate need of a fresh and brand new challenge and that’s when New Japan Pro Wrestling decided to inaugurate their brand new IWGP US Heavyweight Championship.
At NJPW’s first ever show in the USA, the promotion was on the verge of crowning their first-ever IWGP US Champion, as they held an eight-man tournament featuring the likes of Jay Lethal, Zack Sabre Jr., Tetsuya Naito, and eventual winner Kenny Omega himself and in his way to the finals, Omega defeated the likes of Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal, and Tomohiro Ishii in the final in order to win the IWGP US Heavyweight Champion and became the inaugural championship holder as well.
#8 He is the first gaijin to win The G1 Climax
The year 2016 was indeed the turning point of Kenny Omega’s career in New Japan Pro Wrestling, after having taken over the leadership of The Bullet Club from AJ Styles at New Year’s Dash, Omega eventually went on to capture the relinquished IWGP Intercontinental Championship defeating ‘The Ace’ Hiroshi Tanahashi at New Beginning in Niigata.
Shortly afterward, Omega also became a double champion when he along with The Young Bucks—collectively known as The Elite—won the Never Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championships. However, within the next few weeks, Omega would lose both of his championship belts, as he turned his focus on his first ever G1 Climax Tournament, since announcing his move to NJPW’s heavyweight division.
During his G1 Climax 26 run, Omega defeated the likes of Tetsuya Naito, Katsuhiko Nakajima, and Evil in order to book his place in the finals of the tournament, having won the B Block with a total of 12 points. In the finals of the G1 26, Omega would face-off in an instant classic against veteran Hirooki Goto, as the former would go on to win his first G1 Climax Tournament in a dominant manner and became the first ever foreign competitor to win the prestigious G1 Tournament.
#7 Omega is a former WWE developmental superstar
During the initial stages of his career, a then-young upstart named Kenny Omega was invited to a tryout camp to the school of Pro Wrestling legend Harley Race and this was certainly no ordinary tryout camp, because the eventual winner of the whole thing was apparently on the verge of receiving a contract with top Japanese promotion Pro Wrestling NOAH.
Despite not getting off to the best of starts in the tryout camp, Omega eventually managed to prove himself to be the most standout performer and instead of earning a NOAH contract, the Winnipeg native was confronted by WWE’s Johnny Ace, who offered the future IWGP Heavyweight Champion a WWE developmental contract instead.
Omega eventually headed to WWE’s then-developmental brand called Deep South Wrestling, but things didn’t go according to his plan, as he apparently had a pretty terrible time with the company and eventually departed from the WWE in overall.
Following his departure from the WWE, Omega tried to pursue a career in MMA and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, in particular, which also seems to be another unknown fact about ‘The Cleaner’.
#6 He almost started working for TNA
In October of 2004, Kenny Omega competed at the NWA 56th Anniversary Show, when he would challenge for then-TNA X-Division Champion Petey Williams to a title match. Omega, as expected, once again lived up to all the hype and put up an absolutely stellar match against ‘The Canadian Destroyer’ and despite coming close to winning the title, Omega definitely did manage to leave behind a solid impression with the TNA officials.
As a result of this, Omega almost signed with TNA back in 2004 and was on the verge of becoming a full-time TNA talent as well, however, this was another sad and classic case of the list of great talents TNA failed to capitalize on as ‘The Best Bout Machine’ eventually moved on to the next phase of his career.
#5 Omega is a former PWG World Champion and a former PWG: Battle of Los Angeles Winner
Throughout his career, Kenny Omega has competed for several top global promotions, as well as, for notable top Independent promotions as well and one of those rather popular promotions for whom Omega has been competing for is Pro Wrestling Guerilla.
Omega made his PWG debut in 2008 when he entered the Battle of Los Angeles, 2008, however, things apparently did not go according to plan as Omega ended up being eliminated from the tournament in the very first round by local talent Brandon Bonham.
Omega’s first year with PWG wasn’t as half as good as his second was and one year after his debut for the promotion, the future IWGP Intercontinental Champion entered the 2009 Battle of Los Angeles Tournament, where he would go on to win the entire tourney and the vacant PWG World Championship after defeating Roderick Strong in the finals.
#4 Omega started out as a Hockey Player
Kenny Omega is arguably the greatest performer in the world of Professional Wrestling today, alongside former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and having competed in the squared circle for almost two decades now, Omega has definitely earned a ton of experience regarding the Pro Wrestling industry.
However, growing up, Omega initially started out as an Ice Hockey player and preferred to play as a goalie, but, Omega soon became interested in Pro Wrestling after one of his Transcona Collegiate Institute friends started training under Winnipeg’s local TCW promotion.
This eventually prompted Omega to pursue a career in Professional Wrestling as well, as he dropped his Ice Hockey plans and as aforementioned, began training under TCW trainer Bobby Jay.
#3 Omega is one of the two wrestlers to have won both the IWGP Heavyweight and Jr. Heavyweight Championships at least once
When Kenny Omega made his debut for NJPW back in 2010, he initially started out in the promotion as Jr. Heavyweight alongside his good friend Kota Ibushi, as part of The Golden Lovers Tag Team.
Within the first few years of Omega’s NJPW career, he mostly competed as a tag team wrestler in the Jr. Heavyweight Division, winning the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles with Ibushi on several occasions as well.
However, within the next four years, Omega finally penned down a contract with NJPW and simultaneously departed from DDT and at the 2014 Power Struggle pay-per-view, Omega finally made his much-awaited debut for NJPW, officially under New Japan contract.
Upon his re-debut for NJPW, Omega shocked the entire world as he turned heel for the very first time in NJPW when he joined the company’s most legendary faction, The Bullet Club and despite not entertaining the idea of joining the all-gaijin stable, Omega immediately set his sights on the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship, becoming The Bullet Club’s official Jr. Heavyweight representative.
Omega eventually became a two-time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion as part of The Bullet Club and following the departure of AJ Styles from the faction, Omega became the group’s heavyweight representative, as he went on to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Title for the very first time in his career at NJPW: Dominion 6.9, earlier this year.
Following Omega’s historic title win, he became the second person after Nobuhiko Takada to have ever held the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight and Heavyweight Titles at least once in their careers.
#2 Kenny Omega is a gaming nerd
Despite being billed as ‘The Best Bout Machine’, reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion, a six-star match machine, and a fluent Japanese speaker, Kenny Omega is simultaneously also a huge gaming fan.
After all, Omega’s wrestling gimmick is inspired from a Final Fantasy VIII character and his finishing maneuver One-Winged Angel is also inspired from Final Fantasy VII’s Sephiroth.
Omega, who recently portrayed the Cody Travers character in Street Fighter V, is also good friends with WWE superstar Xavier Woods, who is another avid fan of video games as well.
Both Omega and Woods recently competed in a Street Fighter V gaming tournament at the E3 Convention and both men were accompanied by their respective Elite and New Day stablemates as well.
#1 WWE Champion AJ Styles inspired and reignited his love for Professional Wrestling
After his horrendous experience with WWE’s developmental brand DSW, Kenny Omega was seemingly on the verge of retiring from Professional Wrestling and despite a run in the world of MMA, Omega’s passion and motivation for Pro Wrestling had eventually died.
Omega reportedly also got himself a full-time job at an airport, however, prior to his all-together retirement from Pro Wrestling, Omega had one last match in himself when a local promoter booked him in a one-on-one match against AJ Styles and the former had made up his mind to wrestle the match and retire afterward.
However, what followed next was one of the most inspiring stories in the world of Professional Wrestling, as Omega got completely blown away by AJ Styles’ in-ring athleticism that eventually re-established his love for Pro Wrestling.
Omega eventually made his way back to Professional Wrestling thanks to ‘The Phenomenal One’ and followed it up with one of the most successful careers in Pro Wrestling.
