RINGSIDE
KENNY OMEGA, who was ranked number one in the 2018 “PWI 500” and entered 2019 as IWGP champion, is widely considered the greatest wrestler in the world. That’s why it seemed like a seismic shift when the Manitoba native appeared at All Elite Wrestling’s Double or Nothing ticket announcement rally at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and confirmed what the wrestling industry had already anticipated: He will leave New Japan for AEW, signing on as a performer and executive vice president of the newly formed company.
Omega will join former Bullet Club members Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and Hangman Page—now known as The Elite—in AEW. Omega recalled his thoughts during last year’s All In pay-per-view. “I wondered why it couldn’t be this way all the time. Now it can be … Instead of saying how we’ll change the world, AEW will show them.”
It was almost appropriate that , Omega’s opponent at last year’s Wrestle Kingdom, interrupted the proceedings. If Omega is the world’s number-one wrestler, Jericho is the closest to a household name in AEW. Both will be integral to AEW’s success or failure, and a pull-apart brawl between them at the ticket rally indicated the two men would have a hellacious battle at Double or Nothing.
