Rob: The Infamous Kenny Omega Comments

Kenny Omega had his own opinion of WWE NXT, and it was less than complimentary. Rob Bonnette chimes in with his perspective, one that is pointed yet balanced.

In case you missed it Kenny Omega said some things that got a few of us pretty riled up this week, the biggest of which was that the guys and gals who worked the live NXT show would be working dark matches on shows he headlines were there no borders between companies.  Which to be honest is pretty rich when you take into account that the former Tye Dellinger, who was barely a midcard when he was in NXT, was in one of the marquee matches at All Out a few weeks ago.  Then there’s the matter of Pac, formerly NXT and WWE cruiserweight champion Neville, who faced Omega on the second match of that show and who’s entirely monetary value to AEW is that he used to work for the Evil Empire.  Omega’s also way off base because a lot of the top names in NXT are people who he’s faced and worked with before on the indies and other places where they did not curtain jerk for him.

But besides that why did a lot of us get super irritated over what he said?  There are a few reasons.  For one, he talked about his fellow wrestlers.  Not Vince or Shane or Hunter or the WWE itself, all of which are more than fair game, but the guys and gals who bust their asses every week.  Guys and gals that he’s performed on the same shows with before, some of whom actually did have higher spots on some of those same cards.  And he didn’t say ‘I’m the best’ or ‘my guys are the best’, which is fine and quite frankly expected of anyone in the business, he said that the NXT guys and gals wouldn’t even be in a televised match on a show he was headlining.  Which of course is ludicrous.  But that’s not the only reason…….

Some of us just flat out don’t like Kenny, or his EVP contemporaries at AEW.  We’re tired of them barely being able to answer a question without talking about WWE, we’re tired of Cody’s non stop airing of grievances over his perceived slights from his time in WWE (you were a midcarder there dude, get over it and accept that 90 percent of your appeal today comes from having left there and not anything you’re actually doing now), tired of Brandi’s Stephanie McMahon cosplay, tired of Dave Meltzer’s Minister of Propaganda routine, tired of them getting free passes for the same things WWE gets ripped to shreds for (like ugly T-shirts), and tired of being called stupid or short sighted simply because we don’t think the WWE is terrible and still enjoy watching it.

So yeah, when Kenny or Cody or one the Bucks takes yet another shot at the WWE, some of us tend to react.  And it’s not out of some slavish devotion to WWE or Vince McMahon, either.  Plenty of us watch wrestling from other companies, go to indie shows, you name it.  Trust me I don’t have any issues with other wrestling companies I just don’t like these guys.    And honestly it didn’t have to be this way.  They could have done the exact project, carved out their own space, and there wouldn’t have been any beef really.  But they chose to be antagonistic from jump and in doing so have soured a lot of people who would have had no issue with checking them out sometime.  I mean really, the last thing I want is some stupid ‘war’ between fandoms of wrestling promotions, which is exactly what this is right now.

I don’t think most of you guys reading this want an actual war, either.  No, you mainly want to get those tweets off about ratings or attendance or signings or whatever.  Because if you’re rooting for an actual war then you’re ultimately rooting for a scenario in which AEW goes out of business or the WWE is severely hurt, or both.  And in any of those cases the McMahon and Khan families will both be fine but the people who work in the office, the TV production crews, and a lot of the wrestlers will not be.  When WCW and ECW went under everyone didn’t get signed by the WWE, and some of those who didn’t never showed up in a major promotion ever again.  People who worked behind the scenes in both places lost entire careers and along with that homes, cars, you name it.  There will be a ton of collateral damage if this thing ever gets real.

And for those reasons, along with the fact that I flat out have no use for anyone shoving conflict into my face for their own social media amusement, I wish Kenny and his buddies would cool it and I’d be glad if Triple H or whoever else would go stick to publicly politely acknowledging AEW and moving on.

But it was a work, dude, can’t you see that?  

Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn.  Annoying is annoying, work or not.  And if he is working, but doesn’t get it me or anyone who might be on the fence to watch their show, then who’s playing who?  Dude. stick to finding ways to get people to watch your show who aren’t already dialed in and stop with nonsense, especially after the way you melted down on the internet over an Evolve show a few months ago.  Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it, which so far it looks like you and your boys can’t.