Kenny Omega isn’t happy over the way things ended with New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Going into Wrestle Kingdom 13, “The Cleaner” was the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and according to numerous reports, Omega was set to remain on top following the company's biggest show of the year. However, once the Japanese promotion knew that Omega was leaving then their plans changed drastically for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
Given Omega's status with AEW going forward, the company deviating from their original plans was a must; however, getting kicked off the New Year Dash show felt like the company had stabbed him and The Young Bucks in the back (transcript courtesy of Fightful.com):
"We felt betrayed. I found out we were getting kicked off New Year Dash," said Matt while sitting with Nick, Omega, and Michael Nakazawa on Wrestlers Ordering Room Service.
Another thing that Omega wasn’t happy about was the narrative of his feud with Hiroshi Tanahashi changing. According to the AEW star, officials turned him into the bad guy once they knew for sure that he was leaving the promotion for good:
"There's a huge, long story with the build-up to my match against Tanahashi. They completely changed the narrative. At first, it was supposed to be a 50/50 story. People were supposed to be torn. Is it this new age of thinking or the golden age of thinking? Once they knew I was [leaving], they did whatever they could, a complete media blitz to make it look like I was this terrible person. That's what inspired me to make the [video game vignette].
“I fronted the whole thing because I knew it wasn't going to clear. I handed it to them, edited and everything, and they're like, 'We're not showing that.' You're not showing it? The President didn't like it, Gedo didn't like it. Thankfully, I owned it, so I said, 'Here ya go, Nick.' You put it up on BTE, it got a ton of media and press, went viral, and NJPW hit me up and was like, 'If we edit the parts we didn't like, can we use that video? Can you give it to New Japan World?' I'm like, 'Oh, sorry, I already gave it to Nick,'" he recalled.
Despite the way things ended with New Japan, Omega and The Young Bucks still had interest in wrestling for the promotion in the future; however, all three men have yet to re-appear for the company despite their contracts allowing them to do so. The Elite members detail how they want to work with New Japan, but that just doesn’t seem to be in the cards anytime soon:
"The part that was strange for me was that, I always made my intentions clear that being part of Japan or having roots in Japan was important and I was there to help them and anybody at any point in time. I even had it written in my contract with AEW to do so," said Omega.
Nick chimed in, stating, "We did too. Even after all this happened, we had meetings with ROH and New Japan to say, 'We're open to work with you guys. Let's do this.' And nothing happened. Even after all that."
At the end of the day, Omega understands the business decision that NJPW made; however, he does take it personally though:
"When I think about the business of it, I don't have any gripes. Okay, it was a bad business decision. I do take it personally, though. I take it personally because a lot of fans were crushed. I think it was very irresponsible to do that. They tried to cover for it by making a new version of me when they should have let everyone be themselves. Now, they're getting into that groove."