This week, while speaking with Fightful, Kenny Omega talked his decision to finally take time off from wrestling to recover from his injuries.
“I think as time passes by and you start to bury things, you try your best to ignore the things that poke and prod at you. You try to ignore the things that are nagging injuries. You try to ignore the things that don’t seem as important as the task at hand,” Omega began.
“So when I knew that I had a title match, or if I knew that I had some kind of important match where I knew I could possibly elevate somebody, or even if it was just I know that I’ve got a real fun segment coming up with The Elite or with The Bucks, whatever it was that I was dealing with, I would kind of push into the subcortex of my brain and be like, okay, now what do we have left to work with and how can I use what I’ve got left to do this without people knowing that there’s an injury? I think you can really only accomplish this by having years in the business or years in competitive sports or performance. You always find ways to deal with issues like that. You always find ways to lean into other strengths. You may have to cover for weaknesses. That’s just the name of the game.”
“It wasn’t until I was kind of forced to sit and talk about all of these issues that I had, whether it be with our trainers or doctors. When I had done a chiropractic video for a dude on YouTube, it kind of took me aback and it shocked me to start talking about these things that I had never really talked about at all. When I started to compile a list as to what is hurting, but not just hurting, but I mean, what is it that isn’t going to heal on its own, the list was just too long. I knew that as soon as I got to a position where I knew that the company was going to be okay, and I knew that I wasn’t going to leave anybody hanging, or devalue a belt or something, that I needed to take that time to finally get things straightened out.”
You can view Kenny Omega’s entire talk with Fightful below.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article please credit Fightful Pro Wrestling & MMA Podcast with a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
