Kenny Omega Says WWE Star Was ‘Pivotal’ To AEW’s Creation

AEW/WWE

Kenny Omega has explained how WWE star AJ Styles was “pivotal” to both his career and ultimately the creation of AEW in 2019.

With his WWE contract set to expire in early 2026, AJ Styles recently confirmed that he will hang up his boots for good once that time comes.

While his WWE career alone warrants a Hall of Fame induction, Styles’ competed for the better part of two decades outside the company beforehand, most notably for TNA, ROH and New Japan Pro Wrestling.

One of the stars who crossed paths with Styles both on the indies and in NJPW was AEW’s Kenny Omega, and in a new interview with SHAK Wrestling shared his thoughts on Styles’ impending retirement.

Omega gave three examples of Styles drastically influencing the trajectory of his career and eventually the formation of All Elite Wrestling:

“Some people know that AJ has been very influential on my career, whether he realises it or not. I don’t even know if he does. There were multiple scenarios where AJ being involved with something that I did really helped my career. And I can give three examples off the top of my head right away.

“I was in a situation where I wasn’t sure if I’d continue wrestling after I had left developmental. When I had seen the business end of professional wrestling, or at least what was shown to me in developmental at that time. I’d thought maybe this isn’t for me because this just isn’t fun for me anymore and I don’t feel like the creativity that I have access for on the indies is at all viable at that level; everything’s micromanaged, and even the micromanaged stuff is even micromanaged from there.

“So I felt like I can’t be me, and being me was kind of fun, so I’ll go back to the indies and maybe that’ll be it. I’ll just slowly kind of fade out. And I remember the local promoter I had worked for at the time Andrew Shellcross at PCW, he said: ‘Hey, we’ve got this big show coming up and people still love you here locally and we’d love for you to wrestle AJ Styles’. And I thought to myself that’s a great way to go out, that’s a good one, a nice good last match would be that one maybe.

“And I remember wrestling AJ and there was no interaction between us at any point before, but there were moments in that match where it really felt like the give-and-take just felt so symbiotic. Like the chemistry was just naturally there. And I thought ‘wow this is what it feels like to wrestle someone at this level and I’m not embarrassing myself’. ‘Maybe I’m not exactly keeping up, but I’m not embarrassing myself, maybe I need to push myself harder and I can reach this level’.

“And then when I finally made my break in New Japan, AJ was there as IWGP World Champion and I was the Junior Champion, and again it was a situation where what AJ had and what he was able to harness was what I wanted, and I wanted to see that path. I wanted to see what is the making of a champion? How do you do it.

“And I remember AJ, I had his blessing to include me in a match he had against Kota Ibushi, and from there we were able to rekindle and reintroduce fans to the Golden Lovers storyline from there. And I didn’t have AJ’s blessing to do that, to add that emotional storyline beat, I don’t think there would have ever been a reforming of the Golden Lovers. And even from there, the last thing, and most important thing perhaps is when we turned on AJ before he left for WWE, we didn’t tell anybody.

“It was a matter of an exchange between the Bucks and I, thinking like this is something we have to do, and we just did it. And again the natural chemistry and AJ just having a keen sense on what’s best for business knew exactly how to go along with it. And in a way by him turning his back and allowing for that moment to happen, whether he knows it or not, I mean that led to the forming of The Elite, that led to BTE, that led to Hot Topic, ultimately that kind of led to AEW.

“So him being involved in our lives is actually very pivotal for the company and for our careers.”

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Omega will compete in a Trios match at this Saturday’s AEW Full Gear pay-per-view, teaming with Jurassic Express (Jack Perry & Luchasaurus) against The Young Bucks and Josh Alexander.

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• AEW
• wwe
• Kenny Omega
• AJ Styles

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