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AEW's Kenny Omega addresses criticism about promo & storytelling skills

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AEW EVP Kenny Omega has addressed criticisms surrounding his storytelling and promo work on the mic, recalling previous rivalries.

Kenny Omega made a name for himself as one of the best workers in pro-wrestling during his time in NJPW.
With Omega being one of AEW’s top in-ring names following the promotion’s launch in 2019, the Cleaner has been at the forefront of many of the company’s top storylines.
Speaking on a Twitch livestream, Omega addressed claims that he doesn’t understand storytelling.

Sending a clear message to his critics, Omega said:
“Everyone’s wondering, Kenny, ‘Why is Kenny so bad at promos? He doesn’t have promo game… He needs to cut a promo. That’s all I care about.’ Shut the f**k up!… Jesus Christ. You’re trying to talk about a guy who sold 45,000-seaters with my storytelling? You’re trying to tell me I don’t know how to tell stories? Because I don’t have a yelling promo voice? Yeah?
“You tell me and then you’re gonna say, oh well, The Rock sold more. Of course he f**king did. He’s The Goddamn Rock and you know what? I’m not f**king bad myself. I try my best… Honestly though, guys, when I wanna tell a story and I have a way to tell it, I’ll tell it in my ways.
“That’s all there is to it and maybe if something that I’ve done isn’t exciting or my American-style promos just aren’t doing it for you, well, I got news for ya, because I don’t care. I don’t care. It sucks… Hey, I got out there feeling like, man, what am I even doing out here? Why am I even wasting my Goddamn time?

“And you can make of it what you will. You can make of it what you will. Say bad things, troll me, whatever, criticize, it doesn’t make a difference to me. It really doesn’t, so… and you know what? You guys actually on me a little bit about the promo thing, hey, it might even inspire me a little bit to care so…
“No, no, no, promo slander is absolutely allowed. It’s just like, if you guys are gonna say, ‘Hey, I didn’t like a promo’ or, ‘You don’t know how to cut promos’, number one, what’s the purpose of a promo? Of course it’s to sell a match and if you’re wondering and if you look at the records, the records will indicate that I have done my fair share of trying to sell matches in my own way. I have a promo style and cadence and speech and do I use buzzwords in the same way that other people do? Maybe no, maybe it’s just my own thing, I don’t know.
“But, all I do know is that when the performance of a promo or the performance of speaking hinges on the success of a matchup or wrestling card, I’m gonna do what I can to make sure that I sell (the) card and I feel like, you know, when I was champion in AEW and that’s — jeez, that’s going so far back — I felt like I did a really good job and I’m not one to hang my hat on numbers, things like that.

“I don’t wrestle for ratings. I want people to feel something when I perform and if the people who are watching that are tuned in, they care and it’s not just popcorn wrestling or it’s like, okay, I’m watching it for a second and then it’s out of my mind, then I feel like I’m doing my duty as a professional wrestler, spreading the message of how powerful and how beautiful wrestling can be and for the numbers during my run and segments to top over a million and to grow, even in moments when it was just wrestling.
“One of the things I was most proud of, I don’t know when it was exactly, but, I did a cold Iron Man match against PAC where, yeah, we had a story but we just started the episode of Dynamite with a 30-minute Iron Man match and that was kind of unprecedented at that point in time anyway and I think we had like 1.1. mil and I think we were floating around, you know, 859,000 at that time so it was really nice to see that just good wrestling and wrestling was drawing numbers in that day in that moment so, that’s a match actually, in my AEW tenure, it’s a match that I’m very, very proud of because it was just wrestling and people tuned in to watch wrestling and that was very nice, very nice feeling and in the same regard, the story that I was able to tell with Hangman (Adam Page) was a good combination of both, you know, what you do outside of the ring but then when you perform what you perform in the way that you need to perform it when it came time to blow off the thing so… I’m really proud of that stuff so, it’s all good memories.
“It’s all good memories and hopefully if I can come back, then I’ll be able to create some more… And I hope I do it in a capacity with stuff that’s fun. Fun, challenging — actually, challenging might be the best way to put it. Like being challenged a lot.”

Kenny Omega has been out of action since being hospitalized with diverticulitis in December 2023.
For the latest update on Kenny Omega’s health, amid speculation about his return to AEW, click here. 

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