From October 2nd onwards, All Elite Wrestling: Thunder will go head to head with NXT on Wednesday nights. WWE recently moved the developmental brand to the USA Network so it can more directly compete with the newly launched promotion on TNT and, well, Kenny Omega really doesn't sound like he's too worried about it!
During a recent interview, he dismissed the Superstars of NXT and made it clear that if those "developmental" wrestlers were part of AEW, they'd be in a dark match. Ouch.
"You can call it a war if you want. It’s like, to me, we’re in a completely different kind of business. I mean what they’re doing is different from what we’re doing and it’s weird, because it’s hard to say you’re going to war with people that I call my friends. And yet, we are going to war. And yet, when I sit back and look at the grand picture it’s like… I’m going to war with these dudes that, if we were on the same show together, the same show and the same promotion…let’s pretend there were no borders. Let’s pretend there were no promotions. Let’s just pretend there’s just one big promotion. If these guys were on the same show as me, they’d be in the dark match. They’d be in the opening match of my main event match. You’re gonna call that a war? You’re gonna call that competition? Go ahead. It’s fun for me to do, that’s cool. We’re on different planets. You’re gonna see that right away when you see 10,000 [fans] in arenas, sold out. You’re gonna see smiles on fans faces. You’re gonna see real stars. Not developmental talent but real stars appearing on your television sets every week."
Needless to say, these remarks are going to generate a lot of passionate responses and while he does make some valid points, the way he dismisses NXT's roster doesn't come over the well. Of course, he wants fans to tune into AEW on Wednesdays, so you can't blame him for trying to make it clear that they're in very different leagues.
This isn't the first time Omega has generated controversy with his remarks about WWE, though, and it's unlikely to be the last...