Kenny Omega has always been a talented individual to watch, but the Canadian wrestler has earned worldwide acclaim since returning to New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2014. Since then, he has not only become a member of the extremely popular Bullet Club faction that is sweeping the wrestling world right now, but he became the leader of the group when he and the Young Bucks turned on A.J. Styles earlier this year (right before the Phenomenal One made his WWE debut). Now, the man known as “The Cleaner” is ready to bring the Bullet Club forward to face on all foes, no matter where they come from.
During a recent appearance on The Chad Dukes Wrestling Show to commemorate Ring of Honor’s 14th Anniversary, Omega discussed his newfound prominence in NJPW and ROH. But when talk turned to his new affiliation with the Elite, the IWGP Intercontinental Champion shared what the tandem of himself and the Jacksons (who collectively hold the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championships) means for the future of the Bullet Club:
“My hope for the Bullet Club and for The Elite is that going forward we aren’t just the same old Bullet Club trying to pick up the pieces and trying to re-hash the same old ideas. For me to be the new A.J. or for me to be the new Prince Devitt, I don’t want that, I want to be my own person, I‘ve always wanted to be my own person. Now that I’m sort of in a position to be a leader and to sort of set the new standard, a new rule, I think it’s just easier to call myself The Elite with the Young Bucks because they’re the ones that truly supported me from day one. They’re the ones that accent everything that I do that no one else can do. We accent each other we help each other. They’re the guys that are always with me in the think tank. They’re the guys that are always striving to push ourselves to be crazy or to be better. I mean yeah we have a Bullet Club, that’s that’s that’s the New Japan thing. We’ve got cool merchandise, people like wearing the design, people like wearing the shirts, that’s fine, but in terms of identity, we want to be known as the Elite.”
Obviously, by calling themselves the Elite, Omega and the Bucks fancy themselves superior to every other tandem in wrestling today. And that doesn’t simply extend to the talented teams in ROH or NJPW either. The trio are willing to take on challengers from any organization. That’s why they’ve called out the WWE Tag Team Champions, The New Day. However, Omega says that this dream match is more about being the change that they want to see in the industry:
“I think what people need to focus on, and by people I mean companies, we need to focus on putting our best foot forward for the sake of pro wrestling. It’s not just about, ‘It’s my company versus your company and as long as I’m making more dollars and cents than you we’re better.’ Who cares? If we make pro wrestling better as a whole everybody’s making more money. So the best thing to do is to take the hottest acts, regardless of where they’re from, let them go at it. People want to see these dream matches, let them see it.
That’s why we took it upon ourselves to challenge New Day. Did we have New Japan’s blessing? Of course not. Are we going to get in trouble? Maybe. I don’t know. We haven’t heard yet. But we’re just trying to make a statement. We’re trying to for lack of a better term, bait these guys out into changing, helping us change pro wrestling. At the end of the day, if this match does happen, I don’t want to be the guy to take credit for it, I just want to be a guy that said, ‘I was part of something special,’ but myself and the Young Bucks we’re being the guys to instigate it. We’re the ones that are showing that we first have no fear, we’ll put ourselves out there, we’re not afraid to get in trouble, we’re not afraid to take a chance on something that would otherwise be a huge faux pas. So call it a challenge, call it an extension of an olive branch, it is what it is. We want to wrestle the best and we want to give the fans the best.”
The Elite facing The New Day would be amazing. WWE even has an excellent excuse to make it happen thanks to the Global Cruiserweight Series coming to the WWE Network this summer. But while we wait to see if that dream match happens or not, let us know what you think about Kenny Omega’s thoughts on the new status quo for The Elite, The Bullet Club, and his role in professional wrestling as a whole in the comments below.