AEW world champion Kenny Omega spoke more about companies collaborating during his latest interview with TalkSport, where the Cleaner says he wants to do what is best for the fans, but is keeping his expectations realistic. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Explains the realistic possibilities of a major show crossover:
So you talk about the ‘forbidden door’ and people talk about it being open. It’s been ‘kicked open!’ or ‘blown open!’ Do I look at it as this gigantic door in the distance… I feel like it’s opened a crack and there’s this heavenly light shining through. A couple things slip through the cracks, you know what I mean? You might get a guy here or there sneaking in from one side to another, but it’s not going to be a full talent exchange where it’s a free-for-all going both ways. Not because the talent doesn’t want to do it. Everybody wants to do it! It’s almost like between three major companies, how do you even have a show that could encompass all of that talent and make all those dream matches become a reality. Back when there was All Together, it was New Japan, NOAH and All Japan and they did like a five hour supershow. Even Tokyo Domes and WrestleManias in the past have been seven hours, even nine hours – just not realistic!
How the mandatory two-week quarantine in Japan makes it harder to produce content there:
I don’t want to say that these things are not going to happen or will happen. But, I will say one of the major obstacles and hurdles is that all companies involved have travel schedules and the major, major hurdle on the one side, if things were to happen over in Japan, is the mandatory two-week quarantine where you can’t do anything. When an athlete comes here, we’re a little bit more lenient in America as you’ve probably seen on the news feed. But when they go back to their home country, there is still that mandatory quarantine, there’s no way around it. That just becomes a nuisance and a hassle for someone who has a touring schedule like New Japan. And places like IMPACT who when they film their TV, they must be there for their TV because they’re knocking out three-to-six weeks per taping. For us, We’e kind of contractually bound to making sure we have a weekly television show that goes live on TNT.
How the pandemic did help get the companies working together:
So it’s more the traveling restrictions and the things that make traveling between countries difficult is actually what is hurting us. But, in the same way, it helped this whole thing become a possibility because now we’ve been able to take a step back and take a look at the world we’ve realized there’s something a lot bigger than company pride or competing with everyone else around you trying to make yourself the number one brand. It’s about the fans first and foremost and making people happy. It’s about making pro wrestling exciting again and making more of a positive atmosphere. We’re lucky we can actually be one of the few live sport-like events that might have a yearly schedule and for us now to be able to team up and put our heads together and make things exciting for fans. For people that don’t know each others products – maybe you’re exclusive to one brand or a product – just to introduce another high level athlete you’ve never seen before, it’s exciting, it’s fun! So I’m super happy that people were able to see Kenta, the Good Brothers, Don Callis, to see it week-by-week, it’s going to be a very exciting time in professional wrestling.
How they’ve done their best to excel in the COVID era:
We sort of made lemonade out of lemons because of the COVID-era. Now that we’ve all sort of huddled together and realised that maybe this is the best for our fans because a lot of fanbases do watch everything. It’s now what caused us to come together is now what’s stopping us from taking it another step forward and that’s just a shame.
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