{"id":37303,"date":"2017-01-09T14:08:18","date_gmt":"2017-01-09T20:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=37303"},"modified":"2017-01-09T14:13:10","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T20:13:10","slug":"kenny-omega-fresh-off-buzz-generating-main-event-wrestle-kingdom-updates-status-ambitious-twitter-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/01\/09\/kenny-omega-fresh-off-buzz-generating-main-event-wrestle-kingdom-updates-status-ambitious-twitter-post\/","title":{"rendered":"Kenny Omega, fresh off buzz-generating main event at Wrestle Kingdom, updates his status after ambiguous Twitter post"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1472945534\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>Kenny Omega, fresh off of his heralded match against Okada at New Japan&#8217;s annual WrestleKingdom supershow, created a buzz with a Tweet that some saw as a hint he might not be long for New Japan. He wrote: &#8220;I will be stepping away from Japan to reassess my future. The path of my journey may change, but my goals will not change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">I will be stepping away from Japan to reassess my future. The path of my journey may change, but my goals will not. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/E4vDiGgAwe\">pic.twitter.com\/E4vDiGgAwe<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Kenny Omega (@KennyOmegamanX) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KennyOmegamanX\/status\/817323227886125056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI fear that everyone has taken my words too literally,&#8221; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.si.com\/extra-mustard\/2017\/01\/09\/kenny-omega-new-japan-wwe-john-cena-wrestle-kingdom-interview?xid=socialflow_twitter_si\">he told Sports Illustrated today<\/a>. &#8220;Yes, I\u2019m out of the country and off of shows, but I haven\u2019t signed any new contracts yet. After such a huge loss, I didn\u2019t want to just hang around and take part in meaningless matches. I\u2019m only interested in changing the business, so I\u2019m thinking carefully about what\u2019s next.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tokyo Sports has reported that Omega will miss Fantasticamania and perhaps New Beginning, but he is still under contract to New Japan. PWTorch sources say Omega feels mentally burned out and is taking some time off. Close friends of Omega say he can be &#8220;unpredictable&#8221; but they lean toward him staying\u00a0with New Japan, especially since he signed a contract last year that was believed to be for two years, with a rollover clause each year. If that rollover clause allows him to opt out, that could give him options sooner to explore a WWE deal.<\/p>\n<p>He framed\u00a0his status with New Japan in a bit of a kayfabe storyline way, playing into how the Japanese wrestling press covers pro wrestling.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019m leaving to consider my future options,\u201d Omega said. \u201cReturning so quickly after a huge loss would be unwise. I\u2019m finding my next plan of attack in wrestling rather than blindly rushing forward just to be in a ring.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Omega talks about what he felt he accomplished at WrestleKingdom last week. \u201cAfter feeling like I\u2019d evolved to a superior level as a performer, I had so much I\u2019d wanted to show the world,&#8221; he told SI. &#8220;Winning the belt at the Tokyo Dome would have been the greatest end to the greatest one-year run in\u2014possibly\u2014wrestling history. I wanted to roll that directly into a legendary 2017, but it wasn\u2019t meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John Cena&#8217;s posting of a Kenny Omega pic on his Instagram account, as he did last year around this time of A.J. Styles, has stirred speculation that Omega may be headed to the Royal Rumble this year. Cena could also just be intentionally stirring conversation and, perhaps, showing ardent fans that he respects and recognizes what Omega did last week, and nothing more.<\/p>\n<p>SI asked Omega about Cena acknowledging him.\u00a0\u201cJohn Cena is one of the great WWE talents that I respect most,\u201d said Omega. \u201cIf 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. I\u2019m glad to be on his radar, but I haven\u2019t made any decisions regarding my future yet.\u201d He did add, though: &#8220;I would rather be the legend that never stepped foot in WWE.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Either way, he says he wants to be on the radar of wrestling fans worldwide in 2017.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve set a dangerous pace for 2017 but I\u2019ll continue onward to the best of my ability,\u201d said Omega. \u201cI still have more to share with the wrestling world, so let\u2019s change the business together even more in 2017.&#8221;<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-227602189\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Omega&#8217;s match against Okada from the Tokyo Dome last week airs on AXS TV this Friday with Jim Ross doing play-by-play.<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3173875205\"><div id=\"pwtor-4179423814\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Kenny Omega, fresh off of his heralded match against Okada at New Japan&#8217;s annual WrestleKingdom supershow, created a buzz with a Tweet that some saw as a hint he might not be long for New <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/01\/09\/kenny-omega-fresh-off-buzz-generating-main-event-wrestle-kingdom-updates-status-ambitious-twitter-post\/\" title=\"Kenny Omega, fresh off buzz-generating main event at Wrestle Kingdom, updates his status after ambiguous Twitter post\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37308,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,2,6,3],"tags":[306,404,201,94,4505],"class_list":["post-37303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_japan","category-news_wwe","tag-kenny-omega","tag-njpw","tag-okada","tag-tokyo-dome","tag-wrestlekingdom"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2017\/01\/Okada_Omega_3x2.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37303"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37311,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37303\/revisions\/37311"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}