Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
The Bullet Club has sort of become this pop-culture phenomenon. You don't even have to like wrestling or follow our product, and you can wear a Bullet Club shirt, and it's cool.
If I were ever in a position to appear more for ROH, I would accept nothing less than to be recognized as the best - which would mean having to challenge the top dogs/champions.
I exposed myself, and I exposed my relationship and deep love and trust for Ibushi in front of the world. And we want to work together and change wrestling for a brighter future.
In high school, despite my involvement on four different sports teams, I threw my duties of being a jock out the window and spent my spare time in wrestling training or on the PS2.
Any time I broke through the 'glass ceiling' by accomplishing things that foreigners weren't apparently able to do, they've been huge personal victories and career highlights for me.
Ibushi isn't going anywhere. He's staying with me, and I support his success 100%. But we will continue our success as the Golden Lovers, both as a tag team and as single performers.
What I'm trying to say, in general, I think, as long as you try as hard as you can and show that you can answer the call and run with the ball when you get it, there really is no limit.
We have a very physical performance art. A lot of times, when you want to achieve a certain emotion, you have to use professional wrestling ingredients, which are moves or a sequence of moves.
I've always been on the outside looking in. I was never popular in school, despite my success in athletics. I would win track and field competitions, but I wouldn't go to parties. I'd be alone.
I can comfortably say that I very much dislike a person like Jim Cornette, so the day that he disappears from this business permanently, I think, will be a happy day for professional wrestling.
I really want to be an integral part of the New Japan brand in the United States - and other countries, for that matter, too. I feel that I have a certain versatility that other wrestlers do not.
John Cena is one of the great WWE talents that I respect most. If I were to end up there, working with someone of his caliber would certainly be a goal and jive with my mission of changing wrestling.
I think it's important to show in the 21st century that if you're gay, lesbian, trans, whatever, that you should feel just as welcome to be a wrestling fan as anyone else. You're welcome in the space.
For me personally, I think too much emphasis is put on, 'Okay, how cool are my moves?' and, 'How do I string them together?' 'How do I get this move in the match within this time limit?' and that's it.
I still feel there is more to this Kenny Omega character, and there are more stories I need to tell, and New Japan allows me that freedom. That is a freedom I earned through the hard work I put into the company.
You're not going to get a seven-star match or six or five in a seven-minute segment, but I always do the best I can to make that segment memorable and entertaining, and I think that's always the name of the game.
It's funny: there's this idea where Kenny is only good because he can do what he wants, and he gets time. Well, everyone else through those doors had had time and opportunity. Why didn't they do anything special?
I have this original style that I want to show to the world. I don't want to be kind of this beat down, bruise-you-up kind of dude and have Karl Anderson cut all my promos for me. I don't want to have to do that.
I'll take all my matches against WWE's best matches, I'll put it up against Ring of Honor's best matches, or whatever promotion you want, and I guarantee people will be more entertained with my matches than theirs.
If you're holding a championship that means something in the landscape of Japanese wrestling, you're guaranteed to get a huge feature in almost every magazine - you might even be guaranteed a front page. That's big.
The WWE belt means nothing; it means absolutely nothing. They pass around that belt like a hot potato. I probably have a neighbor on my block who held that belt at one point. There is no prestige to that belt whatsoever.
Back in the day, when I was getting into the business, you could watch Pro Wrestling Noah. You could watch Ring Of Honor Wrestling, and a lot of people would say, 'the best wrestling in the world is actually at Ring Of Honor.'
Even my most physical matches in New Japan have all been athletic contests, and generally, they've all been fair and square. It's been this new, strong style we've been trying to create in New Japan, with my own personal style.
Okada and Tanahashi, they don't mind being the wrestler that approaches everything day-of in the ring. I like to go in-depth, to tell the human side of Cody Rhodes, the human side of Kenny Omega. That's why Being The Elite exists.
I main-evented a sold-out Budokan Arena show; I participated in the first-ever ladder match in NJPW, made the transition from junior to heavyweight, and earned a G1 win with a series full of performances that I'm personally very proud of.
I loved Japanese culture before even realizing it was, in fact, Japanese culture. The cartoons and anime I was watching as a child, my favorite video games, and even in pro wrestling - my favorite wrestlers and matches originated in Japan.
I am a very firm believer in Cody Rhodes. I think he is fantastic, an absolute superstar. Unbelievable in the ring, great timing, great pacing - he's in great physical conditioning, can cut a heck of a promo, and just an all-around good guy.
Everything we do in general, there's gonna be a percentage of risk. Me, making my entrance to the ring, there's actually a percentage of risk I'm going to trip and fall and hurt myself. Me, getting up on the apron, there's a percentage of risk.
Here's the thing: Tanahashi has this idea that wrestling has to be a certain way. There are borders that you shouldn't cross. Wrestling should be wrestling; there's a 'classic' way. But the thing is, when I watch a Tanahashi match, I feel nothing.
I actually work better within restrictions. When you leave everything wide open, things tend to get a little convoluted. So when you give me those restrictions and I start to use my brain creatively to work around those, that's when things get interesting.
I try to think of things in levels, pain levels and such, injury levels, like, 'How bad is this injury supposed to be? How much should I be selling?' And I think it also helps with the emotional attachment of fans when you're trying to tell a story as well.
I went from being a junior - and probably set to be Kushida's arch-nemesis until the cows came home - to suddenly being vaulted into the heavyweight title picture for the Intercontinental championship. That taught me a lesson: I couldn't put a limit on myself.
I am flawed, but at least I can admit it, and at least Kenny Omega, Tyson Smith, is exposed to every single one of you, every single night I perform in the ring. And the relationships that I have in my life with the fans, they're all with me. We are all family.
When I was growing up, I thought there was only WWE. That's it. One promotion in the world. And then, as I grew up, I found that there's local wrestling. There's WCW, there's ECW. In Mexico, there are the luchadores. And then, finally, I realized there's wrestling in Japan.
What true 'Strong Style' really is, is the battle of the heart of man. It's not about how strong and how forceful you're throwing your blows. It's showing the never-say-die attitude of the human spirit. As long as it looks like you're fighting and giving your all, people will believe.
I guess what Kenny Omega is, even though the image is something that was given to me by New Japan and then tweaked by me, it's just me, Tyson Smith. Yeah, that's me, just a guy that likes to joke around when he doesn't have to be serious. And when he has to be serious, he's really serious!
While I'm still healthy, while I still have ideas in this crazy head of mine, I want to contribute, and I want to do things that are going to make wrestling fans happy and are going to make new people into wrestling fans that were wrestling fans before. I want to contribute in that manner.
I think, for many people, they think there's one giant promotion, and that's all that there is. It must be the best. But as they expand their palate and their horizons, they realize that, oh, there's other wrestling out there. They might not necessarily like it more, but it's an option now.
I don't want people to look back at my matches and say, 'When you did that move, it was good, and I liked it because it was cool.' I want people to sort of remember a rush of images and the emotion that they felt when they saw it. That's when I think you have a real masterpiece in your hands.
The problem with Deep South to me is that there was a group that were tight with the boss, and they would always go out and drink and have barbeques. Then, when WWE would say, 'Who should we look at?' Bill Demott would say, 'Oh, look at this guy and this guy.' Of course those were his buddies.
A lot of people, especially performers in wrestling, feel that winning the title is the only statistic that matters, but it's always about the journey. If you don't have the people behind you, believing in you, and the start of a new chapter after winning the title, then you don't have anything.
I don't like to risk - I'm actually not a tough guy at all, make no mistake about it, so I'm not going to do something that I'm scared of. So, if something looks dangerous, at the time I didn't think it was, because I'm the first person to cower away from a risk of injury if there seems to be one.
A lot of people think that comedy is sort of a cop out to not wrestling seriously, but I actually would argue that comedy is much more difficult than wrestling seriously because you have to be creative in almost everything that you do if you want the comedy to make sense within the realms of pro wrestling.
I only ever get to work with Naito once a year. I'd love to wrestle him again. Yeah, he's good, for sure. The person I've never worked before in a New Japan ring - and I'd be happy to get the chance and show the difference of styles - is Zack Sabre, Jr., so that'd be another one. Yeah, he's one of my favorites.
Pentagon not only has the untrainable 'It' factor but also the rare ability to adapt and succeed wherever he competes. He has a unique charisma about him that fans connect with, and regardless of where he competes or what style is prominent, he seamlessly blends in - yet stands apart from everyone else on the card.
There's a certain kind of wrestling fan that will only like a certain style. They think that's the right way, and that's okay, but I'm not trying to impress those people. Those people are already kind of set in their ways. I'm trying to open the world to a different style, what pro-wrestling has the potential to be.
I have a vision for what I want wrestling to be, and I was fortunate not just to have the opportunity to show my talents at the right time, and not just to have the right opponents, and not just to have the knowledge that the front office has faith in me, but also the good fortune not to get hurt in the middle of all this.