Why Kenny Omega Is NOT The 2021 Wrestler Of The Year

As of writing, Kenny Omega has wrestled 32 times in 2021, and he's not likely to increase that. Of those 32 matches, he won 68.8% of them (22) and famously became the 'Belt Collector' thanks to title wins in AEW, Impact Wrestling and AAA.

These are the fairly impressive facts, but exactly how memorable its all been is simply too debatable to crown him as Number One in 2021. AEW television clashes with Rey Fenix, Jungle Boy and Christian Cage were spectacular in the moment if lost to the constant content churn. On pay-per-view, Omega drew well for his own group as well as Impact against the likes of Jon Moxley, Orange Cassidy, PAC, Moose and Sami Callihan, but the battles were short on the follow-up discourse that came to define his New Japan classics.

Conversely, Bryan Danielson bordered on becoming an Instant Classic factory before generously dropping down the card in order to pad his own stats. Off the back of the Omega war, he worked absolute rippers with Nick Jackson, Minoru Suzuki, Eddie Kingston. Elsewhere, he showed remarkable range in bouts against Bobby Fish, Dustin Rhodes, Miro and Evil Uno. Just as he'd done sharing a very different ring with very different opponents in WWE. Few - if anybody - could have balanced the two wildly divergent philosophies as well. And it doesn't even feel like his peak has been reached.

Omega's time in AEW will surely come again, and hopefully a full physical rehabilitation will bring about an even more awesome run than what he's accomplished thus far. A babyface World Championship reign offers angles and matches almost entirely different to what we've seen thus far and promise excitement few others in wrestling history could proffer.

But Bryan's wrapped that in two months and is already about to wrestle away his top heel spot too. In 2021, all of this is his world - everybody else is wrestling just to keep up in it.