Kenny Omega has built a career around making people care about what happens inside a wrestling ring. His matches can be outrageous, emotionally exhausting, or deeply personal. At their best, they combine all three.
From DDT to New Japan to AEW, he has delivered performances that helped define promotions and the wrestlers across from him. His case as modern wrestling’s greatest comes from that range, his storytelling, and his role in expanding the audience for wrestling beyond WWE.
The Rivalry That Changed His Career
Kazuchika Okada gave Omega an opponent whose dominance matched his ambition. Beating him meant overcoming the wrestler at the center of New Japan’s heavyweight division.
Omega lost their first championship encounter at Wrestle Kingdom 11. At Dominion in 2017, he pushed Okada to a 60-minute draw. His victory during that summer’s G1 Climax proved he could beat the champion, setting up another title match with unfinished business behind it.
Their familiarity shaped the action. They anticipated each other’s offense, escaped finishing moves, and struggled to capitalize when exhaustion took over. Every rematch carried the memory of what had worked before and what had cost them.
At Dominion in 2018, Omega finally won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a two-out-of-three-falls match, ending Okada’s 720-day reign.
The victory paid off a pursuit that had stretched across four singles matches. By then, the audience understood how difficult it was to keep Okada down. Omega’s eventual breakthrough felt earned because their previous encounters had made failure so believable.
Beating him can complete a pursuit that has taken years.
More Than One Kind of Great Match
Omega’s versatility separates him from wrestlers whose best work follows a familiar formula. He committed to DDT’s comedy, developed an explosive heavyweight style in New Japan, and brought complicated relationships into AEW’s tag team division.
His expressions and mannerisms are a major part of that range. He can make arrogance irritating, desperation convincing, and an absurd situation entertaining. The character remains recognizable as the setting changes.
At Revolution in 2020, Omega and Hangman Page defended the AEW World Tag Team Championship against The Young Bucks. Their strained friendships gave the match tension before anyone threw a strike.
The Bucks used the Golden Trigger, drawing on Omega’s partnership with Kota Ibushi. Page delivered the One-Winged Angel and eventually won with the Buckshot Lariat. The wrestlers used familiar offense to provoke one another and reveal how well they understood each other.
Omega had to navigate a partner growing apart from their friends as all four fought over the championship. His performance allowed Page’s resentment and the Bucks’ hostility to drive the match. He could share the spotlight without becoming secondary to the story.
The Golden Lovers Gave Fans Something Personal
Omega’s partnership with Kota Ibushi brought affection, jealousy, separation, and reconciliation into a story that unfolded across years.
Their connection affected their choices. Who they stood beside and whether they could trust each other became as important as the titles they pursued. Omega’s confidence could unravel around someone whose approval mattered to him.
The Golden Lovers also offered LGBTQ fans a relationship they could connect with in a business with a long history of using sexuality for ridicule.
In a 2018 Yahoo Sports interview, Omega welcomed that connection.
“If LGBT people can identify with our story, if they think ‘the Golden Lovers are my team,’ I’m good with that,” he said.
Their relationship gave Omega room to be vulnerable. A wrestler capable of acting untouchable could also be hurt by rejection or drawn back toward someone he had lost. Those emotions followed him into his matches and gave his victories and defeats personal consequences.
Will Ospreay Gave Him Another Defining Rivalry
Omega’s work with Will Ospreay belongs alongside the Okada series in any discussion of his best performances.
At Wrestle Kingdom 17 in 2023, Omega defeated Ospreay for the IWGP United States Championship. He wrestled with the aggression of an established star determined to punish the man trying to take his place. Ospreay had to survive that punishment and confront the possibility that he still could not beat him.
Their Forbidden Door rematch put Omega in front of a Canadian crowd against an increasingly vicious opponent. Don Callis interfered, Ospreay attacked Omega with a screwdriver, and the match became a fight to withstand everything being thrown at him.
When Ospreay delivered the One-Winged Angel, Omega kicked out at one. The immediate rejection of his own finishing move made his pride visible in a single movement. Ospreay ultimately won with the Hidden Blade and Stormbreaker.
The rivalry reached Wembley Stadium at All In in 2026, where Ospreay defeated Omega for the AEW World Championship. Omega entered as the champion standing between another wrestler and a career-defining victory.
Years earlier, he had chased Okada through repeated setbacks. Against Ospreay, he could draw on that history from the other side, making his opponent work to overcome the reputation he had spent years building.
The character remains recognizable as the setting changes.
An Audience Willing to Follow Him
Omega’s career also includes evidence that audiences would follow his work across promotions.
He and Ibushi headlined DDT’s 2012 Budokan event, which reported 10,124 fans. Their championship match occupied the top spot on a major show for a promotion whose approach to wrestling differed considerably from New Japan’s.
His first IMPACT appearance produced a measurable jump in television interest. The December 8, 2020 episode drew 221,000 viewers, up from 166,000 the previous week. An appearance by the AEW champion gave fans a reason to seek out another company’s programming.
Omega’s decision to join AEW carried greater consequences. He arrived in 2019 as a wrestler and executive vice president, joining Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks in those roles.
For fans who had followed his career in Japan, his signing gave the new promotion immediate appeal. AEW could build major matches around a performer who had already established himself on an international stage.
His legacy includes helping build that platform. The matches, rivalries, and opportunities that followed became part of a larger change in the wrestling business.
A Career That Kept Adding to the Argument
Omega’s career required a difficult restart after diverticulitis kept him out of action for more than a year. He returned against Gabe Kidd at Wrestle Dynasty in January 2025, winning his comeback match at the Tokyo Dome.
That return led to another chapter of major matches, including the championship meeting with Ospreay at Wembley. His résumé continued to grow beyond the New Japan run that first made him central to discussions about the world’s best wrestler.
Omega has excelled as the challenger chasing a dominant champion, the arrogant star defending his position, and the partner struggling to hold a relationship together. His opponents have benefited from each version. Beating him can complete a pursuit that has taken years. Teaming with him can expose tensions that eventually become rivalries of their own.
That is why Kenny Omega belongs at the front of the modern wrestling GOAT debate. He has repeatedly made athletic spectacle feel personal, given other wrestlers defining moments, and helped build a major stage on which those stories could unfold.
