It’s not surprising these days to hear that pro wrestlers are into video games, but Kenny Omega, currently one of the world’s best performers in the ring, probably can claim that he’s into them even more than most. Not many others can hold court about Mother 3 or are in a position to recruit talent to his upstart WWE competitor, All Elite Wrestling, during matches of Apex Legends.
Omega spent the week in Los Angeles at E3, crossing off what he describes as a “bucket list” opportunity to go the most news-making gaming show of the year. He used to live in Japan, where he was a star wrestler for many years and would take time to go to the Tokyo Game Show. As he noted, however, “E3 is kind of the granddaddy; it’s the biggest one of them all.” Last year he was only at the show for 24 hours for a promotional panel at Capcom. “I played one level from Mega Man 11 and they allowed me to play the Resident Evil 2 demo.”
“This year, I set aside a week,” he said. “I’m here to talk about AEW, to play some games, to meet some people.”
Omega and I talked at the start of the week when we both appeared on YouTube’s E3 gaming show to talk about Bethesda’s conference.
He was excited to see Cyberpunk and was hoping there would be something playable of Final Fantasy VII. By week’s end, he’d rolled through Nintendo’s booth, played some Street Fighter V and even shown up on Giant Bomb’s marathon video show wrapped in a blanket.