Don’t get me wrong. Kenny Omega is one helluva wrestler. He has powerful strong-style moves that look more painful than they actually are. Trust me, I wouldn’t want to get hit with a V-trigger, or his “One Winged Angel” finishing move. I might need to call a chiropractor after the match.
Kenny Omega is currently the heavyweight wrestling champion for All Elite Wrestling (they’re on Wednesday nights on TNT), and of late, AEW has been working with two other wrestling organizations, the American-based IMPACT! company, and New Japan Pro Wrestling, as part of what appears to be the build for a major interpromotional supercard.
I’m good with that.
So I was kinda surprised to hear, on last night’s edition of AEW Dynamite, that ringside announcer Jim Ross credited Omega with another championship.
Wait, WHAT??
Okay, for those of you who are not into professional wrestling, here’s how this works. The WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) is the most prolific provider of pro wrestling content. They have two national TV shows each week (Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown), and they already have a WWE heavyweight champion, a Scottish good guy named Drew McIntyre.
AEW – All Elite Wrestling – started up about two years ago, and although they have several ex-WWE wrestlers on their roster (Cody Rhodes, Chris Jericho, Matt Hardy, the former Revival now known as FTR, the former Dean Ambrose now known as Jon Moxley), they’re not involved in any sort of inter-company promotion with WWE. And usually, references to one company or the other are very, very limited. Someone might make a reference to a new WWE star getting his training “on the independent circuit,” or that an AEW star “once worked up North,” and that’s it.
And Good Ol’ JR has made several broadcasting boo boos in the past, and people just continue on because, hey, it’s Jim Ross, and he’s still the greatest play-by-play man since the days of Gordon Solie. And Jim Ross was a WWE announcer for many, many years. So it could be simple “muscle memory,” he was trying to say “AEW Champion” and it came out “WWE Champion,” it’s a flub, no big whoop.
Of course, that didn’t stop one WWE wrestle from having a little fun with JR’s gaffe.
Then again … what would it take to have a Drew McIntyre v. Kenny Omega matchup for an inter-promotional wrestling supercard?
Oh man, I could have some serious fun with this. Let me see.
- Let’s have Roman Reigns take on Cody Rhodes.
- Let’s have the Street Profits match up with FTR.
- Give me Asuka versus Riho.
- I’ll take Nyla Rose against Nia Jax.
- Randy Orton versus Jon Moxley in a weapons match.
- Charlotte Flair taking on Dr. Britt Baker DMD.
- Sami Zayn against Orange Cassidy. Please, give me Sami Zayn against Orange Cassidy.
- Bianca Belair against Kris Statlander.
- Santana and Ortiz against the New Day.
- The Hurt Business in an 8-man against Team Taz.
Man, I could have so much fun with this.
Or maybe I can just chalk this all up to a simple on-air goof. I mean, it’s not the first time Good Ol’ JR has messed up on air.
I mean, you can see the last time JR gaffed on air at this link. But at least that time, he wasn’t suggesting that AEW wrestler Anna Jay had become WWE women’s champion. 😀
Chuck The Writer 