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It’s been a long journey for Kenny Omega for the past year after being diagnosed with Diverticulitis.
All Elite Wrestling‘s Kenny Omega recently sat down with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful. When asked about his issues with Diverticulitis that has resulted in missing out on a year of in-ring action, Omega reflects on how it all came about.
“Yeah, who knows the amount of matches I had worked in that condition,” Kenny Omega admitted. “I had just known that there was something off. And there was something off for quite some time. I noticed it in my training. I noticed it in the results of my training or lack thereof. You know, I just felt like I always felt low on energy.
“I felt that no matter what I did, no matter how hard that I would diet or how hard that I would train, nothing was working in the midsection area. And I was feeling, again, like I said, a lack of energy. There was sometimes pain in the midsection area, and it felt different than the kind of pain you’d get from, say working too much abs or eating something that maybe didn’t agree with you a little bit.
“And it got to a point where I was almost immobile. I just couldn’t really move, and I would just summon up everything that I would have to show up to the arenas to do whatever it was that I had to do. And I think near the tail end of things, and you could really see it.”
Omega went on to recall the infamous in-ring promo with Chris Jericho on Dynamite. Afterward, many fans thought he had mentally checked out and just wasn’t interested in his current storyline. But in fact, it was so much worse than anyone could have imagined.
“There was one in-ring mic segment in particular that I can remember, and I remember just not feeling well. And I thought like, hey, I need to tell somebody that I’m not feeling good at all. But it didn’t feel like a flu. It was different than a flu, and it was different than COVID. I tested negatively for COVID, so what was it? I wasn’t sure, then because I couldn’t figure out an answer, or because I couldn’t find anyone who maybe even had an answer, I just thought, okay, I guess I just got to get it done.
“And I remember looking at myself in the mirror, and my face was pale white, my lips were blue. Something didn’t seem right. So I went to makeup, and I said, ‘Hey guys, I know it’s gonna sound odd, but can you do whatever you can to make me look more tanned? Because I just feel like I look like a ghost. I don’t look good.’ And so they did what they do, and I looked a little more tan.
“And I thought at the moment that I looked maybe healthy, but when I look back at the footage, I just see myself, I’m just not there. I’m gone. My face is pale. My lips are blue, bluish-purple. I remember being in the ring just begging something on the inside, just don’t collapse, don’t keel over, don’t embarrass yourself, don’t ruin this entire thing.
The in-ring promo was a blessing in disguise
“But then by being in that condition, I kind of ruined the entire thing anyway. So a blessing in disguise, because that was a big wake-up call for me to finally get some kind of help that I really needed. But yeah, it took quite a lot for me to finally take a step back and then say, yeah, there’s something that needs to be done, and I need to do it now, because I can’t keep living this way, and I can’t keep working this way either.”
READ MORE: Kenny Omega On His Comeback: I’m Not Who I Used To Be, But I’m Gonna Give It My Best Shot
What do you make of Kenny Omega’s comments? Are you surprised to learn how much he was dealing with before he was diagnosed with Diverticulitis? Let us know your thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.
If you use any of these quotes, please credit Fightful with a link to this article for the transcription.
