Kenny Omega discusses the growth and changes in AEW in its five years.
AEW was founded in 2019 as an alternative to WWE with Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson), and Cody Rhodes coming together to put their stamp on a new product. The promotion promised a focus on in-ring action and a more sports-centric approach with rankings. The company has evolved over the years, doing away with the rankings, acquiring some of the best wrestlers in the world, and expanding its digital football.
Speaking to Chris Mueller of Bleacher Report, Kenny Omega reflected on the evolution of AEW.
"Everything changes and it's hard to really predict with 100 percent accuracy how something is going to end up," he said. "There was a lot of new promotion energy back then. There was a lot of excitement, and people were willing to give us the benefit of the doubt and give us a shot. We had a locker room and a team of real go-getters. Every week was something new, something exciting. We were just trying to get our footing. Now we have a much larger roster, and we have a lot of our bases covered."
He continued, "Is it different now than it was on day one? Absolutely it's different. Do I still feel that I have an identity within this company? Yeah, it's still AEW. From 2019 until now, every single year has been completely different from one another. I didn't even realize it until you asked me the question just now how different year one was from year two and year three. It's all about making the fans happy. You strip back everything from the original mission statement, it was really all about making fans happy. At the end of the day, if the fans are happy with the product, if the networks are happy, if everyone is happy who consumes our product, then I'm happy too."
Omega has done it all in AEW, holding the AEW Championship, main eventing pay-per-views, winning tag team and trios gold, and more.
He is set to team with Chris Jericho to take on The Young Bucks at AEW Full Gear. Fans can check out the current lineup for the show by clicking here.
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