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Kenny Omega made his big return to AEW at Full Gear 2022, and it looked like a return to form for the man considered one of the best wrestlers in the world. However, one man who will never give Omega his due is former wrestling manager and current podcast commentator Jim Cornette. Nothing that Omega can do ever seems good enough for Cornette and this has a history in a lot of different things that have happened in the past.
The reason Jim Cornette hates Kenny Omega has more to do with Cornette’s views of professional wrestling than for anything that Omega has ever done in his career. Jim Cornette came up in professional wrestling when kayfabe was still a big deal. It was Cowboy Bill Watts who gave Cornette his big break in Mid-South Wrestling and helped develop his managerial style and his views on the industry. With Watts being a person who would fire a wrestler for breaking kayfabe even away from the wrestling arena, Cornette has a firm belief of what wrestlers should do. The legendary manager of The Midnight Express has strong opinions on AEW wrestler Kenny Omega.
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Jim Cornette Says He Hates Kenny Omega
Kenny Omega has done enough to break that mythical kayfabe to drive Cornette up the wall. There were at least two moments from Omega’s past that cemented his status on Cornette’s list of most hated wrestlers. He once wrestled a little girl. At another time, he wrestled a blowup doll. Now, the reasons for these events remain well documented. In Japan, aspiring wrestlers start training as children. Omega worked a match with a third-grade girl, and he sold for her so she would look good. As for the blowup doll, it was Omega’s attempat at showing he could have a five-star match against anyone, including a blowup doll. It was a way to show his arrogance.
For Jim Cornette, it was an embarrassment to professional wrestling. In a tweet, Cornette said that “if he wants to be respected as a wrestler, too f***in late.” When a fan pointed out that Steve Austin used to be the Ringmaster and ended up as one of the best of all time, Cornette didn’t want to hear it. He said that Austin got a bad gimmick and persevered. “Omega delights in being a phony videogame f**k.” There was another fan who said that Cornette once wrestled a ninja turtle, but Cornette once again said it was different. The “turtle” was a “grown man” and not a “grade school kid or inanimate object.”
Cornette also talked about it on his podcast. He said he is “disgusted” by the fact Kenny Omega has a spot in professional wrestling. “He should have had his legs broken, and been left in a ditch for what he did to the wrestling business in front of paying customers,” Cornette said. “I don’t see why anybody would want to associate with Twinkle Toes, and so therefore, I don’t care if he can beat the reanimated corpse of Lou Thesz. He does not deserve to be rewarded for his indiscretions by being called a professional wrestler.”
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Kenny Omega Mostly Shrugs Off Jim Cornette’s Comments
Nothing Kenny Omega says or does matters at this point. Cornette said that he wants Omega to know what he thinks about him because he feels he shouldn’t be allowed in the business. Of course, fans have gotten used to Cornette's rants of hating everyone from WWE director Kevin Dunn to former creative consultant Vince Russo. As for Omega, he doesn’t seem interested in feuding with Cornette online. He usually shrugs off what Cornette says and has often looked at the former manager with a bit of embarrassment.
There was the moment where Cornette said he wished pain and injuries on Omega. When talking about things like this statement, Omega shrugged it off. In an interview with CEOGaming, Omega said that Cornette has found a group of people who worship everything he says. This has backed Cornette into a corner where he has to just spend time tearing other people down. “When he realized he could make money by delivering hateful speech, he backed himself into a corner and now, if he wants to make rent, if he wants to buy his fancy McDonald’s double cheeseburger meal, he has to talk about the things that are going to get attention, and a lot of the time, that’s going to be yours truly.”
