In an interview with Sports Illustrated, Kenny Omega spoke about the exploding barbed wire death match with Jon Moxley at AEW Revolution this Sunday, why he chose the stipulation, and defying expectations as a bad guy. Here are the highlights:
On the concept of the match:
“The idea itself is incredible. You touch the ropes and they explode. This is a match that was made famous about 30 years ago in FMW. It’s not like a cage match where you have a pretty good idea about what you’ll see. With this, there are going to be so many unexpected parts.”
On playing a bad guy and defying expectations:
“I despise when I come across as too arrogant, but I never doubted that I could do this. I’ve been hearing for over a year these expectations of what I was supposed to be in AEW. It was just a copy-and-paste of the ‘Tokyo Dome Kenny Omega,’ which would essentially have monopolized all of our programming. If that were the case, an hour would have to go to my matches. I believe too much in our roster and our vision to ever want to do something like that. This is my opportunity to show to a much broader audience that I can show a different side to my work, do these skits, which the people who watched Being the Elite already knew, and accomplish a whole new set of goals.”
On why he picked the exploding barbed wire death match:
“I’m just trying to make my tool chest as big of a tool chest as you can do,” says Omega, who has been on a tear since his singles bout against Hangman Page at Full Gear in November. “I’m constantly challenging myself in all sorts of manners within wrestling. […] I love that anticipation, the waiting,” Omega says. “We’re taking a piece from history, from Hayabusa, Jinsei Shinzaki, Tarzan Goto, and [Atsushi] Onita, and some of the North Americans that went to FMW—but those were matches you wouldn’t see on TV. Back then, you had to trade for the tapes. There was the anticipation, followed by that raw fun when you watched. That’s what I want to capture.”
