How Kenny Omega Is Bringing Back AEW's Biggest Weapon

Remakes, reboots, revivals of dead franchises: all of this has permeated pop culture over the last decade, and Omega was the first in professional wrestling to market himself by tapping into that nostalgic pulse. He wore Sly Stallone's Ray-ban 3030 sunglasses from Cobra; the '80s cool guy standard duster jacket; his salt-and-pepper hairstyle had a Cyberpunk quality; his call-and-response encouraged the crowd to stamp their feet to the Terminator theme: his aesthetic, inspired also by Resident Evil's Albert Wesker, was a composite of retro nerd chic. A hero to the disenchanted millennial pro wrestling fans in the west, he was, until it was all made untenable through his brilliance, a true heel in Japan. His use of tables, and the introduction to NJPW of the Ladder match, intensified the Bullet Club's transgressive western influence. Where the old cheap heat was very effective in NJPW's more sporting context, Omega enriched the in-ring style.

All of this was helped, of course, by the fact that Kenny Omega had become the premier in-ring performer in the entire world.

Omega destroyed the old notion that style and storytelling substance are somehow distinct; working with an unprecedented explosive athleticism, and an almost impossible physical timing - that propulsive V-Trigger remains the preeminent example of wrestling's futuristic sleight of hand - he patterned his arsenal after video games, and innovated a brand new, intoxicating rhythm in pro wrestling. But there was a narrative beat to every flashy strike; Omega, in setting new standards for both athletic performance and storytelling depth, made a mockery, a meme, of the word "methodical". His advancement of the art was very much comparable to a next-gen console; the old system was rendered a clunky antique with agonising loading times.

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