Omega opens up about Brawl Out.
It was at AEW All Out 2022 that there was a physical altercation involving CM Punk, Ace Steel, Kenny Omega, Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson. At the time, all parties involved were reprimanded.
Fast forward to present day, CM Punk nor Ace Steel is no longer with the company. Punk got into a physical altercation with Jack Perry at AEW All In at Wembley Stadium and that resulted in him being fired and Perry being suspended. AEW opted to air footage of the altercation live on Dynamite.
Kenny Omega took to his Twitch stream on 4/12 and opened about the situation from All Out 2022. His venture into that conversation started with him saying he has not had power in AEW in over four years. He feels he’s a terrible Executive Vice President and does not deserve the role, although he’s always willing to give people advice whenever they need it.
He spoke about what he thought his duty was as an EVP during Brawl Out and that was de-escalate the situation. Omega added that he wanted to create a peaceful environment for Punk’s dog, Larry. He followed up by saying he’s not trying to be funny when he says that and went on to speak about his love for pets and animals. As far as the rest of the situation, it was too chaotic for Omega to change anything on his own. He stated that the way he wanted to go about things was not how others wanted to approach it and maybe not even how ‘the boss’ wanted it handled.
Omega reiterated that he played a lot of contact sports growing up and has been in a few scuffles. If fighting is the answer and people can shake hands and move on afterwards, he’s all for it. But that mindset is also why he believes he should not be an EVP.
Just because I represent a company or because I am an employee at one company over another, does that mean I love every storyline? Does that mean that I agree with every decision? No, of course not. I’m not the booker. I don’t have power, I haven’t had power for more than four years now in that company and I know that’s gonna sound odd because like, well Kenny, you’re an EVP. I’m nothing. I am nothing, and I’ll tell you why, it’s because I’m a terrible EVP. I don’t deserve to be an EVP. If people wanna ask for my advice, I’ll do my best to help them. If there’s a fire to put out backstage, I’m gonna do my best to be that person. But, if we go back and I don’t want to have to comment on it, but I’ll do it, just because it adds context to it. I thought my duty as an EVP during Brawl Out would be to enter the situation while there was chaos, de-escalate it and create a peaceful environment for everyone. I was able to create a peaceful environment for most important person in that altercation and that was Larry and I swear to God, honestly, that was my biggest — and that sounds funny but, I look at animals and our pets as people and Dobby of course (Omega’s cat), one of the most important people in my life. So, to get little Larry out of there was the most important thing to me and that was a success. Unfortunately, try as I may, things were too chaotic for me to be able to do anything on my own power… I believe it was in that instance when I realized that the way that I wanted to go about things wasn’t necessarily the way that other people wanted to, was also the way that other people necessarily didn’t want to and then it was also maybe not the way that the boss wanted to take care of it and I also thought of myself as a liability because I am, I don’t wanna say old school, I’m not old school. I just played a lot of contact sports and I’ve gotten into jiu-jitsu and boxing and mixed martial arts. I just know that sometimes, when you perform or when you fight, when everything’s on the line, when you give your heart, when you give your soul towards something and you’re in that moment of high stress or high anxiety where you’ve maybe emptied the tank and you’re just physically exhausted… But when you’re in an environment like that, sometimes emotions get the best of you and people will wanna throw hands… and I am unfortunately or fortunately a believer of it. I think if it’s decided, hey, this is the best way to solve things and you can shake hands after and move on after, I’m actually a believer of fighting. I am and that sounds terrible to say which is why, like, don’t make me an EVP in 2024. We can’t do that stuff anymore. I just feel that sometimes, that’s how you have to settle things. Sometimes, and I don’t mean you have to settle it and then it has to be shown on-screen to everyone or people have to brag online about who won, who lost. No, it’s not for that purpose. It’s for the purpose of just getting that stuff out that you need to get out, and I’ll admit, there were a number of times, even now with me, where I thought that-that might have been the most appropriate answer. It never came to that. We were able to talk things out and we became better friends and there was a level of respect at that point on between myself and these other parties and maybe I’ll share these stories later. It’s crazy. As much as I’ll believe in cooler heads prevailing, sitting down and talking, sometimes there’s just like, hey, I can’t even think straight until I start throwing some hay, you know? Or maybe that I need to be smacked on a little bit, whatever the case might be. I think if it’s a contained scenario and if it’s not a situation where, you know, there’s pulling people’s eyeballs out, low blows, hair-pulling or scratching, you know what I mean? If it’s just like, hey, let’s just hang and bang a little bit. I can see it sometimes being conducive for a positive work environment. Again, this is exactly why I have no power nor should I. So, that’s just how I feel and I’m gonna leave it at that.
When a chat user asked about his status with Punk, Omega said there’s mutual respect there. They reached out each other and Omega said they never had a bad relationship. If not for ‘another factor’, they would have been able to talk on the night of All Out.
Omega stated that there are legalities when it comes to delving into the altercation, but he does not want to be standoffish about it. He’s just not big on pulling back the curtain on things like that in specific when it should be kept in-house.
Status with (CM) Punk right now? Um, I don’t know. It’s just mutual respect. We reached out to each other… I can’t really think of anyone that I dislike or have an issue with, especially an issue with wrestling… It’s not like, hey, we’re good now. It’s we were never bad. Honestly, if it weren’t for a complete other factor, we would have been able to have that talk on the night of Brawl Out. There’s no issue between him and I, as far I know (Omega laughed). I don’t think there is at all.
That’s another thing too guys. I don’t wanna seem standoffish or secretive about what happened. Yes, there’s legalities and all that stuff but even if there wasn’t, and I know this is gonna sound weird because I’ve done a lot of comedy stuff in wrestling, but like, I’m actually not a huge fan of pulling back the curtain on stuff that doesn’t need to be out in public… If for whatever reasons, guys were to fight or whatever, it’s not for the public to know. That’s just for them to air out their stuff to get it out of their system. That’s all I mean.
Elsewhere in the stream, Omega provided an update on his recovery from diverticulitis and diverticulosis. There was briefly a point when he thought he’d be able to come back without having to undergo surgery. Omega thinks his diverticulitis began to develop and get bad during his trips to Mexico.
Even though I’m very much still dealing with the ill effects of diverticulitis and diverticulosis, there’s this wonderful clinic and you guys may have seen their stuff on Instagram or on Twitter. I’m actually wearing their stuff right now, the LifeMed clinic over in Baltimore and they have helped a number of wrestlers. They’ve done a lot of stuff with DDP as well for the DDP Yoga and stuff and actually, their doctors, their group of doctors and their professionals were able to hook me up with a supplement line consisting of the stuff that I need for general gut health and also healing peptides has allowed me to feel very good in my day-to-day. Before, I was kind of having one real bad day, one real good day and on streaming days, I would almost have to stay in bed until 5 PM to make sure I had the energy to do this for you guys. But it was something I wanted to do (he laughed). I don’t wanna make it seem like, I had to drag my ass on stream for you… I.V. drips and stuff, yes, being hydrated. Even though it sounds like a strange thing, even when it’s bad, you don’t feel like digesting anything because drinking and eating, it hurts. But these supplements here, a lot of my inflammation has gone down. I am able to eat properly, I’m able to bring a lot more fluids with feeling discomfort and aside from just being sensitive to the touch… I was even thinking for a second, for a quick second I thought, oh my goodness, is it possible I may be able to go back without surgery? But nah. The first time I take someone’s double foot stomp, even if it was, like, Marko Stunt’s or Riho’s double foot stomp, something’s probably gonna blow. If Dobby (Kenny’s cat) walks on my belly, that’s a 21-pound cat there… As good as I feel right now in my day-to-day, in my training, once impact gets involved or when you really have to use your core to do heavy lifts, that’s where things start to get dangerous so, I’m gonna have to make sure that it’s all taken care of.
Not all the times (did I enjoy going to Mexico), because one time I got very, very sick and that sucked and I had this sickness for about for four months and honestly, if I’m gonna speak frankly, I think actually where my diverticulitis began to develop and get real bad was because of the Mexico trips, and that could happen anywhere, it could happen anywhere. I’m not saying it’s because I went to Mexico. It’s just bad luck. But, to have to wrestle like that, it was tough, it was tough.
The former AEW World Champion mentioned that he has a ‘bit of a stay’ ahead of him after an upcoming visit to the hospital.
I won’t binge it (X-Men 97) in like a day. Probably when I get from the hospital or something, that’s a great thing to watch. Yeah, I might just save it for that, because I’ll have probably a bit of a stay coming up in my near future and it’ll be nice to have something fun to watch or to do.
POST Wrestling’s John Pollock and Wai Ting shared their thoughts about the Jack Perry-Punk footage being shown on Dynamite and that can be heard here.
Perry was in action at NJPW Windy City Riot in Chicago, Illinois and to read about the multiple All In references from Perry and the crowd, click here.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit the original source with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
