WWE Executive Director Bruce Prichard says he had “no idea” who Kenny Omega was until seeing him at an event in 2019.
Omega began setting the wrestling world alight when he joined Bullet Club in 2014. As The Cleaner he made waves in the junior heavyweight division before moving up a weight class to wrestle at heavyweight. It was as The Best Bout Machine that Omega really began to gain notoriety, having classic matches with Kazuchika Okada, eventually defeating the Rainmaker for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Dominion in June 2018 in one of the most critically acclaimed matches of all time.
However, speaking on his Something To Wrestle podcast [available early and ad-free at AdFreeShows.com], Bruce Prichard revealed that the first time he had ever heard the name Kenny Omega wasn’t until Starrcast in 2019:
“That day that I was at Starrcast [in 2019] and I said who was that. I had no idea who he was.”
Prichard’s admission might be more surprising considering Omega competed in the WWE developmental system from 2005 until 2006 but Prichard says the territory of Deep South Wrestling where Omega was assigned wasn’t really on his radar, although he does point to one WWE Superstar who did stand out in that promotion:
“It was [on our radar], that was one of our territories, we had training facilities and everything that we had there. Unfortunately I didn’t get down there with the kind of frequency that we would’ve liked to of.”
“I was a fan of MVP the first time that I saw him in Deep South. From the very first promo he cut in developmental that I saw, he was a good worker. He was just one of those guys that had a spark about him and I loved his story.”
WWE reportedly offered deals to all of the AEW Executive Vice Presidents before they teamed up with Tony Khan to form All Elite Wrestling in 2019.