Kenny Omega is taking his recovery one day at a time. In an interview on Friday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, the former AEW World Champion spoke openly about the ongoing challenges he faces after a near-fatal bout of diverticulitis that kept him out of action for nearly a year.
Omega agreed with Dave Meltzer’s assessment that he isn’t the same wrestler he was before the illness, explaining that he’s still dealing with the physical aftermath of his emergency surgery.
“It’s as you said, I feel in the pursuit of just staying at the same pace that the younger healthier talent are moving at, I feel in situations like that I wouldn’t be able to stand out or oppositely, I would be able to stand out, but I would stand out in different kind of way, a negative way…I try not to bring attention to that,” he said. “I don’t want people to feel scared or sorry for me, or I don’t want anyone’s opinion of a match to be hampered because I simply just can’t move consistently as fast all the time…there’s still a number of issues I’m working through, and it’s really day to day.”
He revealed that adhesions from the surgery cause him significant discomfort, particularly during physical exertion.
“I have these adhesions in my stomach, quite a few, and when you’re breathing heavy, when you have to use a lot of core, when you have to twist, when you have to stretch, the adhesions that are binding to my inner organs, they’re pulling apart, and it’s causing a lot of discomfort, kinda sorta like a lot of flu like symptoms to emerge,” he said.
Omega recalled being exhausted for a full week after the Anarchy in the Arena match at Double or Nothing, a combination of the match itself and the surrounding events. “It’s not meant to scare anybody, I’ll be in bed until 5 p.m., 6 p.m. for almost an entire week…I just don’t have the energy, I can’t move,” he recalled. “That was the most scary part to me.”
Now, Omega is focused on listening to his body and not pushing himself past his limits, something he credits his boss, Tony Khan, for understanding.
