I actually work better within restrictions. When you leave everything wide open, things tend to get a little convoluted. So when you give me those restrictions and I start to use my brain creatively to work around those, that's when things get interesting.
— Kenny Omega
I think, for many people, they think there's one giant promotion, and that's all that there is. It must be the best. But as they expand their palate and their horizons, they realize that, oh, there's other wrestling out there. They might not necessarily like it more, but it's an option now.
I only ever get to work with Naito once a year. I'd love to wrestle him again. Yeah, he's good, for sure. The person I've never worked before in a New Japan ring - and I'd be happy to get the chance and show the difference of styles - is Zack Sabre, Jr., so that'd be another one. Yeah, he's one of my favorites.
I have things about me that I dislike; I'm not a perfect human being.
Pentagon not only has the untrainable 'It' factor but also the rare ability to adapt and succeed wherever he competes. He has a unique charisma about him that fans connect with, and regardless of where he competes or what style is prominent, he seamlessly blends in - yet stands apart from everyone else on the card.
I sort of took the literal term of 'The Cleaner,' and I started bringing janitorial items to the ring with me, so I took garbage bags and brooms and mops.
When I see Big E, I clearly see someone who could be world champion. The guy is on another level.
What I'm trying to say, in general, I think, as long as you try as hard as you can and show that you can answer the call and run with the ball when you get it, there really is no limit.
New Day rocks. I can't lie.
There are days when you have tag matches, but you need to prepare for your next singles match on that same day.
I main-evented a sold-out Budokan Arena show; I participated in the first-ever ladder match in NJPW, made the transition from junior to heavyweight, and earned a G1 win with a series full of performances that I'm personally very proud of.
Learning Japanese was certainly a task, but my passion for the culture, as well as my will to communicate with fans and friends, always encouraged me to continue.
I take a lot of pride in what I do.
I have a vision for what I want wrestling to be, and I was fortunate not just to have the opportunity to show my talents at the right time, and not just to have the right opponents, and not just to have the knowledge that the front office has faith in me, but also the good fortune not to get hurt in the middle of all this.
If LGBT people can identify with our story, if they think, 'The Golden Lovers are my team,' I'm good with that.
I've always been on the outside looking in. I was never popular in school, despite my success in athletics. I would win track and field competitions, but I wouldn't go to parties. I'd be alone.
A lot of people, especially performers in wrestling, feel that winning the title is the only statistic that matters, but it's always about the journey. If you don't have the people behind you, believing in you, and the start of a new chapter after winning the title, then you don't have anything.
It's funny: there's this idea where Kenny is only good because he can do what he wants, and he gets time. Well, everyone else through those doors had had time and opportunity. Why didn't they do anything special?
When I was growing up, I thought there was only WWE. That's it. One promotion in the world. And then, as I grew up, I found that there's local wrestling. There's WCW, there's ECW. In Mexico, there are the luchadores. And then, finally, I realized there's wrestling in Japan.
Ibushi isn't going anywhere. He's staying with me, and I support his success 100%. But we will continue our success as the Golden Lovers, both as a tag team and as single performers.
I exposed myself, and I exposed my relationship and deep love and trust for Ibushi in front of the world. And we want to work together and change wrestling for a brighter future.
I could say, you know, if I could work with Seth Rollins at some point in time, that would be a lot of fun.
I guess what Kenny Omega is, even though the image is something that was given to me by New Japan and then tweaked by me, it's just me, Tyson Smith. Yeah, that's me, just a guy that likes to joke around when he doesn't have to be serious. And when he has to be serious, he's really serious!
All I know is what I have been given and what opportunities lie before me. Try to make the best of them, and I'm not going to give up until I make it to the top.
I have sort of made it my mission to be treated less as a foreigner, less as a guest.
I am invading homes everywhere, all over the Internet and on TV - all you have to do is search the name, and you can find me anywhere, from New Japan World to Ring of Honor.
It's easy to make rude comments simply for the sake of being rude, but I'd much rather go a more psychological route.
Any time I broke through the 'glass ceiling' by accomplishing things that foreigners weren't apparently able to do, they've been huge personal victories and career highlights for me.
I'll take all my matches against WWE's best matches, I'll put it up against Ring of Honor's best matches, or whatever promotion you want, and I guarantee people will be more entertained with my matches than theirs.
Since I'm not in WWE, some people think I'm not even in their league. It's easy for me to tune those people out because they have no idea what they're talking about.
I think it's important to show in the 21st century that if you're gay, lesbian, trans, whatever, that you should feel just as welcome to be a wrestling fan as anyone else. You're welcome in the space.
Okada and Tanahashi, they don't mind being the wrestler that approaches everything day-of in the ring. I like to go in-depth, to tell the human side of Cody Rhodes, the human side of Kenny Omega. That's why Being The Elite exists.
Winning the title is an important detail to the story, but how you get there is much more important.
A lot of my main-event matches will last around the half-hour mark, and if you can have a variety of emotions within that half hour, that's a great story from start to finish.
There's a certain kind of wrestling fan that will only like a certain style. They think that's the right way, and that's okay, but I'm not trying to impress those people. Those people are already kind of set in their ways. I'm trying to open the world to a different style, what pro-wrestling has the potential to be.
WWE, of course, has had some fantastic two out of three falls matches.
I am flawed, but at least I can admit it, and at least Kenny Omega, Tyson Smith, is exposed to every single one of you, every single night I perform in the ring. And the relationships that I have in my life with the fans, they're all with me. We are all family.
Fans, wrestlers, and even the general public have been conditioned to believe that there's an enormous skill gap between WWE and everyone else.
I have this original style that I want to show to the world. I don't want to be kind of this beat down, bruise-you-up kind of dude and have Karl Anderson cut all my promos for me. I don't want to have to do that.
My dreams are bigger than money; they're bigger than fame.
If people love you, if you're making money, if the performances you have are unlike anything anyone has ever seen, you get put in a position to be the man.
If you're holding a championship that means something in the landscape of Japanese wrestling, you're guaranteed to get a huge feature in almost every magazine - you might even be guaranteed a front page. That's big.
The best wrestler in the world is me.
Part of what makes my character work is the delivery of the truth behind my comments.
I loved Japanese culture before even realizing it was, in fact, Japanese culture. The cartoons and anime I was watching as a child, my favorite video games, and even in pro wrestling - my favorite wrestlers and matches originated in Japan.
If I lose my confidence, then I'll lose my way.
John Cena is one of the great WWE talents that I respect most. If I were to end up there, working with someone of his caliber would certainly be a goal and jive with my mission of changing wrestling.
In WWE, a gay person is usually portrayed like some sort of comedy act to be mocked and laughed at. The world's not like that anymore.
Why use your natural abilities to make someone feel bad? I just want to be the guy who uses his power to be positive.
We have a very physical performance art. A lot of times, when you want to achieve a certain emotion, you have to use professional wrestling ingredients, which are moves or a sequence of moves.
