“Well, my character is that I’m kind of a bitch and a video game nerd, but I’m really athletic. “There was this boom in indie wrestling where everyone’s character was, ‘Well, I can kick your ass,’ and that’s it,” he says. Back in 2014, after years of playing a fun-loving gamer in an implied relationship with Ibushi, he curdled and turned to darkness. In order to put himself in the position to be that transformative figure, Omega had to refocus his character.
JAPANESE GAY MEN WRESTLING PRO
His post-match interviews revolve around his unparalleled in-ring skill, but also his hope to “change the world.” What that means is rarely given much specificity, but the overall message is clear: Omega wants to change our attitudes about pro wrestling, to evolve the sport beyond simplistic storytelling and to redefine what it means to be a man in perhaps the most traditionally male form of entertainment left. Wrestlers like WWE’s Finn Bálor, Ring of Honor’s Dalton Castle and others are representing LGBTQ culture in a variety of ways, but Omega is at the forefront of this movement. Omega, however, is the poster child for a new template for the wrestling hero, one that’s becoming more and more prevalent: sexually fluid, emotional and fully modern. Even announcers like Jerry Lawler would pile on in the service of riling up the primarily male audience. Decades later, WWE fans in the 1990s would still hurl homophobic slurs at Dustin Rhodes’ Goldust character. George rose to prominence in the 1940s and 1950s and was despised for his “flamboyant” behavior, coded language for homosexuality. One of the first great bad guys in modern pro wrestling was Gorgeous George, who just so happened to share Omega’s curly golden locks. Despite the presence of out gay employees in wrestling offices, like WWE writer and talent wrangler Pat Patterson and promoter Jim Barnett, wrestling storylines would mostly paint homosexuality as heinous. Wrestling villains (or “heels”) were cowards, sneaks, cheaters, and sadly, occasionally gay. Wrestling heroes (“babyfaces,” as they’re called in traditional insider-speak) are usually all artifice - you like them because they’re blandly handsome and they overcome insurmountable physical odds to triumph in the end. He did so by doing the opposite of the well-worn template for success.
JAPANESE GAY MEN WRESTLING PROFESSIONAL
“But if he does, we can do something amazing together.”īorn Tyson Smith in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Omega has become the biggest draw in professional wrestling outside of the monolithic, multi-billion dollar empire that is the WWE. “I don’t know if wants what I want,” Omega tells me over the phone prior to his IWGP Heavyweight Title defense at New Japan’s July G1 Special in San Francisco. Omega, the superstar world champion of New Japan Pro Wrestling - the second largest wrestling promotion in the world after WWE - aims to change that. And even more rarely does that romance involve two men. Wrestling is designed to elicit a variety of emotions in the service of getting you to return to the arena to part with your money again - anger, disappointment, happiness, titillation. Omega, defeated and unsure of what was next, finally let go of his anger and hugged Ibushi, the one true thing in his life, as the streamers fell.
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After years of emotional distance and public scorn from Omega after their breakup, Ibushi was ready to forgive. Omega and Rhodes were in a heated battle for control over the highly popular Bullet Club, a group that sells millions of dollars in merchandise through a lucrative deal with the Hot Topic clothing chain. Omega’s former tag team partner and implied lover, Kota Ibushi - an angelic, distractingly handsome wrestler capable of incredible feats of athletic achievement - had sprinted to the ring to save Omega from a beatdown at the hands of the nefarious Cody Rhodes. On this night then, the streamers and the celebration were for something else - something much bigger than wrestling. Beaten, bruised and humbled, he lay exposed to the fans in Sapporo, Japan. He lost his IWGP United States Championship to Jay White at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s January New Beginning event. Kenny Omega, however, didn’t win his match. They add an air of legitimate sport to the predetermined outcomes of professional wrestling - theater, combat and acrobatics squeezed together.
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The streamers are usually for the winners - an ostentatious bit of Japanese wrestling tradition to send the fans home happy in the same way one might be pelted with confetti after the clinching game of the NBA Finals.