Kenny Omega enjoyed some parts of Bill DeMott's training but said some was not necessary
In 2005 and 2006, Kenny Omega was a part of WWE's developmental territory of Deep South Wrestling. While he was there, he was trained by controversial former head trainer Bill DeMott. In an interview with Title Match Wrestling Network, Omega discussed his time at Deep South Wrestling. Omega said DeMott did not train with the same philosophy that Omega would have.
"I think he certainly took advantage of his position of power. If I were to run a seminar for example or if I were to train anybody, I would not try to train them something I didn't understand. I would try to train them something that I definitely could train them correctly and safely and only things that could benefit their career in a positive manner," said Omega. "I think possibly because Bill was in a position to be a WWE trainer, he may have been expected to be a jack-of-all-trades, the epitome of what a pro wrestling trainer could be. I think he stepped out of his comfort zone a lot and tried to train things he wasn't qualified to be doing," he continued.
DeMott was criticized for some of his behavior as it was seen as bullying. Omega did not mention any of the behavior which led to DeMott's exit from WWE, but Omega did say DeMott took parts of the physical training too far.
"I think he understood the power plant philosophy, how to break guys down mentally and emotionally to build them back up. I think he's got that down. He wasn't the greatest pro wrestling teacher," said Omega. "As much as I enjoyed the physical aspect of the training, I loved having to do a ton of squats, a ton of push-ups. I loved running around the town...I think the stuff where it started to get questionable was when it was like 'ok, everyone line up, get in the ring, and a guy is going to pitch you to the floor.' ....We know how to take getting pitched to the floor, at this point it's a risk to injury," he continued.
Omega went on to say there was no ability to speak up because of the environment and those wrestlers who sat exercises out were mocked. Omega admitted he understood being a hard-nosed coach but he saw wrestlers injured in meaningless drills that "didn't make them a better wrestler." He also spoke about NXT and he believes it is ran much better than his time in WWE developmental.
The rest of the interview can be seen at TitleMatchWrestlingNetwork.com.
