Kenny Omega was a featured interview on GameSpot and “The Cleaner” clears the air about his upcoming match with Jon Moxley at Chicago’s All Out show, as well as how Moxley is like Terry Funk in a lot of ways. Omega also had a lot to say about the growth of All Elite Wrestling and how it is a great WWE alternative, talking about how important it is to stay fresh in a wrestling landscape that is filled with televised content.
“I appreciate all the genres of movie or television show or whatever. Sometimes I’m in a specific mood. Sometimes I want to be scared. Sometimes I want to laugh, sometimes I want to cry. But a lot of times, I would love to feel a broad spectrum of emotion with you. And I feel that when you achieve that, you can engage a larger audience, and you can keep them engaged. When I look at what makes a Marvel film entertaining… What makes them so popular? Why does everyone like them? Why do kids like them? Why do adults like them? Why is it the go-to film anytime a Marvel film is released? Well, it’s because there’s drama, there’s comedy, there are serious moments that make you angry. there’s serious moments that make you want to cry. It has all of those things, but at the end of it, it’s a story of good versus evil, much like professional wrestling.”
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Omega also talked about the inspiration behind Fyter Fest, saying he originally contacted CEO organizer Alex Jebailey because he just wanted to join the video game tournament and just be a regular guy and compete in that way. Omega says competitive gaming isn’t a large hobby in Winnipeg, and saw how a shared love of video games and his wrestling opened up to a new crossover.
“And I just wanted to be a dude. You know what I mean? I want to try my hand to competing. We don’t have any locals, really, where I’m from in Winnipeg. No majors, especially. No premiers or majors. So I just wanted to go to what people would consider one of the more fun events. And when I showed up, thinking I was just going to be a guy, you know, I had people come to me telling me, “You know, I saw your match. I loved it. I saw this match. I loved it. You’re doing great stuff in Japan.” I was blown away. For this whole new community, this group of people that I’d never met before, they were so inviting and so kind. I just really felt like I found kind of a new family, in a way.
So that’s what sort of inspired Fyter Fest, and even the first CEO-cross-New Japan show. As a gamer, I can play at a decent level, but it’s not like I can offer groundbreaking tech. You know what I mean? I can’t offer things that are going to help people improve their game. I can’t offer new software. I can’t offer new hardware. So I thought, if there’s anything I can give back to the community, it’s my wrestling. So we planned the first ever crossover event last year. It was successful. And then this year, we just want to build on that and groove on it. And, hopefully, whether people are competing or non-competing or whatever, we can give them something to do at night, just to kind of relax and have fun and not worry about, you know, where their standings are or if they drown in pools or whatever.”
