I’ve already written an article about the possibility of Kenny Omega making the jump to WWE a couple of weeks ago, but, since then, all sorts of people have claimed Kenny Omega would be one of the surprise entrants at this year’s Royal Rumble. Their reasoning is that Kenny Omega is no longer under contract with NJPW since he’s accepting independent bookings, that WWE.com and WWE app have mentioned Omega in recent days, including a since edited-out comment by Seth Rollins, citing Omega as one of the possible surprise entrants, and that John Cena is still amusing himself with posting Kenny Omega pictures on his instagram account.
Now, this might all sound very convincing to some of you, but, the simple fact is that there is no way Kenny Omega can appear at this year’s Royal Rumble since it has been officially confirmed his current NJPW contract expires on January 31. That means that legally, Omega cannot even discuss the possibility of a WWE contract before said date.
But what about those independent bookings some of you might ask. Well it is true that Omega has been accepting independent bookings, but most of NJPW’s roster has been doing that for years. Indeed, NJPW has working relations with smaller promotions all over the world (ROH and CMLL being good examples of that) and often gives permissions to their talent to appear for said promotions for one or several dates, so that’s not really proof of anything.
As for the WWE.com, WWE app and John Cena postings, would this really be the first time they (or Omega for that matter), have been trolling us? Omega’s match against Okada created a huge buzz and a huge amount of speculations. Chances are some are just having fun with that.
That said, what could happen is Omega refusing to sign a new contract with NJPW and start negotiating with WWE, but, as said above, that can only happen after January 31. Also, sources close to NJPW have hinted that this whole discussion is a storm in a glass of water since, according to them, Omega has already agreed to a new NJPW contract. As for me I still think Omega will stick with NJPW for a year or two, before making the jump to WWE.
Whether those people (or I) are right or wrong is irrelevant for the Rumble. Omega won’t be there, simply because he can’t. And that’s the end of that.
