Kenny Omega: "If [NXT] guys were in the same show as me, they'd be in the dark match. They'd be in the opening match of my main event match."

[C.S.]

5 minutes ago, sek69 said:

Heel does heel stuff, the internet explodes. Film at 11.  

 

2 minutes ago, El-P said:

Omega is in character. Same exact thing as Shane Douglas shitting on Ric Flair & Shawn Micheals in 1996. Except Omega has legit sold out buildings in Japan, where they legit are trying to replace the gap created by leaving. I'm enjoying this stuff more as it goes on. That's the old-school ECW fan in me talking maybe.

Except, how does this draw money for AEW or build any AEW talent or feuds?

Answer: IT DOESN'T!

There's a HUGE difference between Omega saying this on Twitter or YouTube and Shane Douglas saying it as his character on a television show designed to make him and ECW look like an edgy alternative.

ECW did this right. Omega's bullshit looks like amateur hour. It's terrible.

[El-P]

2 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Except, how does this draw money for AEW or build any AEW talent or feuds?

He's turning into The Cleaner again. Feuds are gonna come once the TV starts, except his character is being slowly established. People have complained that Omega lacked personality so far in AEW. Now he's showing it. So it has to suck and turn people away, for sure, because.... well because AEW is turning people away, apparently, that is their MO.

[El-P]

4 minutes ago, C.S. said:

ECW did this right.

Yeah, that sure got them shitload of money, TV deals, PPV buys and ratings... And that's coming from a huge Shane Douglas fan.

Also, back then, only the ECW fans thought this was cool, WWF and WCW mainstream fans thought it was amateur bullshit from a Bingo Hall promotion.

I dunno. It's *fun*. I have no idea if that is gonna make a difference in any way, but it's *fun*. Can't have that in our corporate, safe-placy pro-wrestling in 2019...

[sek69]

Shane Douglas came off as desperate for attention from the big boys in 1996, no one thought him doing grandstand challenges to Ric Flair made him edgy at the time. ECW being gritty, violent, and something that looked like guerrilla TV made it the edgy alternative back then. 

Kenny's being honest in the context of a heel character. There's only a handful of people in NXT who would have even made it on any of the major cards he headlined and Donavan Dijak certainly wouldn't have been one of them. 

Now does make it kind of weird that we know that Kenny's a VP, so him being heelish in any context is going to be jarring. But the guy's not going to be happy smiling babyface forever.

[SirEdger]

Not sure Shane Douglas is the best example, considering he really loathed Flair & Michaels in 1996. But I get your point.

[C.S.]

Becoming "The Cleaner" again is great. Building a feud against Dominick with no possible payoff is pointless.

You can say the same for Shane re: Flair/HBK, but at least that positioned ECW as the edgy, irreverent underdog.

The difference was, Shane was punching up by going after Flair/HBK and thus making himself and ECW look like the scrappy little guy. Omega is punching down by going after Dominick and only makes himself and AEW look like bullies. 

My God, it's the easiest thing in the world to make WWE and NXT look like the "big bad" - they already are in so many real ways - but goofy as fuck Mr. Clean can't even accomplish that much. It's not fun or witty or cool or entertaining. It could be, but it's not, because the approach is entirely off. It's just dumb business. 

Edit: Also, it's not 1996 anymore. Even if Shane was 100% successful in his approach, it wouldn't work today because times have changed. 

[El-P]

6 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Becoming "The Cleaner" again is great. Building a feud against Dominick with no possible payoff is pointless.

But he's not. He's only building himself as an asshole.

And yeah, it's 2019. People make the difference between the character and the VP. AEW is not gonna be a "heel promotion" because of this. And if things kinda get mixed up between fiction and reality, well, that's pro-wrestling, it has always been pro-wrestling. 

[NintendoLogic]

If Omega is going back to being The Cleaner, that's more evidence that he has a terrible mind for the business. Cleaner Omega was hokey undercard shit, as was pretty much everything he did prior to coming to NJPW. Tony or someone else in the front office needs to put their foot down and start filtering out his goofier tendencies.

[C.S.]

1 hour ago, NintendoLogic said:

If Omega is going back to being The Cleaner, that's more evidence that he has a terrible mind for the business. Cleaner Omega was hokey undercard shit, as was pretty much everything he did prior to coming to NJPW. Tony or someone else in the front office needs to put their foot down and start filtering out his goofier tendencies.

I am not overly familiar with The Cleaner, TBH - I just meant that a heel turn would probably do him some good, because he has been bland in AEW so far and something has clearly been missing. Starting feuds with NXT undercard talent definitely isn't the solution though. 

[Alucard]

i've felt Omega in AEW has been lacking the aura that Omega in NJPW had, but an abrupt sudden heel turn would be kind of disappointing heading in to what should be a heated feud with Moxley where he was clearly the babyface.

[Dewar]

I don't think he is the clear babyface with Moxley, and that's what he should be using as his reason for a heel turn.

 

[FMKK]

There are so many easier targets for them to be hitting if they want to attack WWE that this seems like a bit of a waste, even if it is just gimmick

[NotJayTabb]

It's kind of impressive how quickly the narrative has gone from "We're going to war with WWE" to "We're going to war with WWE developmental". Just in terms of perception, it makes them look less big time, especially if their ratings are equal to or less than NXT. 

[El-P]

Actually, the narrative is AEW is a new company and WWE don't want them to exist so they do everything possible to fuck with them, including pushing up NXT against them. 

[FMKK]

2 hours ago, El-P said:

Actually, the narrative is AEW is a new company and WWE don't want them to exist so they do everything possible to fuck with them, including pushing up NXT against them. 

Yeah, so Omega needs to stop bitching about their developmental and take the fight to Vince or HHH or whatever 

[El-P]

1 hour ago, FMKK said:

Yeah, so Omega needs to stop bitching about their developmental and take the fight to Vince or HHH or whatever 

I mean, it's odd people point at Omega and don't say shit about HHH who said clearly nonsensical stuff in response. I mean, "I wouldn't trade anyone on the NXT roster for these guys"... Really ? Oh, you mean after they turned down the ridiculous contracts Vince offered them for the main roster ? Ok.

Anyway. Like I said, I'm already tired of the endless comparisons and bitching about "X doesn't make his company look good" stuff. I just want a fine pro-wrestling show to watch that is not WWE. The rest is anecdotes, social media overreaction and fanboys & haters bickering on both sides.

[NintendoLogic]

At this point, I hope both companies go out of business.

[FMKK]

2 hours ago, El-P said:

I mean, it's odd people point at Omega and don't say shit about HHH who said clearly nonsensical stuff in response. I mean, "I wouldn't trade anyone on the NXT roster for these guys"... Really ? Oh, you mean after they turned down the ridiculous contracts Vince offered them for the main roster ? Ok.

Anyway. Like I said, I'm already tired of the endless comparisons and bitching about "X doesn't make his company look good" stuff. I just want a fine pro-wrestling show to watch that is not WWE. The rest is anecdotes, social media overreaction and fanboys & haters bickering on both sides.

Maybe because I already know not to take anything WWE says seriously. I don't really care if Kenny wants to go out and insult them etc but as someone who wants AEW to succeed, it would be nice if he did it in a more effective way.

[Jmare007]

The TNT debut can't come soon enough, the level of nitpicking right now is something else. At least when the TV show is up and running the arguments will be a bout stuff that could actually matter

[KawadaSmile]

3 hours ago, El-P said:

I mean, it's odd people point at Omega and don't say shit about HHH who said clearly nonsensical stuff in response. I mean, "I wouldn't trade anyone on the NXT roster for these guys"... Really ? Oh, you mean after they turned down the ridiculous contracts Vince offered them for the main roster ? Ok.

But people did criticise Triple H, and those very same quotes took place nearly a month before the Omega interview. People brought them up again to add fuel to the fire.

[El-P]

17 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

But people did criticise Triple H, and those very same quotes took place nearly a month before the Omega interview. People brought them up again to add fuel to the fire.

I did not realize that. That said, Omega saying what he said only seem even more "fair" then. 

43 minutes ago, Jmare007 said:

The TNT debut can't come soon enough, the level of nitpicking right now is something else. At least when the TV show is up and running the arguments will be a bout stuff that could actually matter

Well, yes.  (I have no doubt everything will be scutinized like hell though, to the point of people just refusing to have any fun with a brand new mainstream TV show. JR said, and he's probably right, that the first AEW show will probably end up being the most over analyzed two hours of pro-wrestling ever, thanks to social media).

[WingedEagle]

While I haven't watched it, from what I've read I don't see any controversy or real story to this Omega business.  Its a wrestling character cutting a promo.  On the other hand, if I were Kenny Omega and AEW I would be concerned that the guy who was arguably the company's biggest name at launch is currently little more than afterthought.  Perhaps they're waiting for TV to make him matter, but year to date he hasn't been involved in anything particularly interesting or in any way felt like someone I need to pay to see.

[Coffey]

22 hours ago, sek69 said:

Shane Douglas came off as desperate for attention from the big boys in 1996, no one thought him doing grandstand challenges to Ric Flair made him edgy at the time. ECW being gritty, violent, and something that looked like guerrilla TV made it the edgy alternative back then. 

Shane Douglas never felt like a big deal to me when watching ECW, despite him being World Champion often. Francine was more special, imo. At least when I was 17. And Bigelow, Taz & Sabu all felt like a bigger deal than Douglas. The Franchise always came off as a poser to me. Maybe that was the point? But when he was dumping on guys like Flair it always felt to me like he was just trying to get the association pop.

Kind of feels the same in the modern day with Omega. 

[sek69]

Omega's headlined shows and had good matches, Shane did all his bragging with nothing but Dean Douglas and the Dynamic Dudes on his resume. He was out there talking shit on the biggest star in the business while never getting above the level of lower mid card comedy guy.  Kenny may come off as a dork at times but at least he's put in the work to be able to talk shit on people. 

[superkix]

Kenny O-MAGA