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Deep down, we all want the same things. We want to be happy. We want to be ourselves and be appreciated for who we are. We want to lift our opponents high in the air and drop them directly on their heads.
This week, Wrestler Kenny Omega lived the dream as he arrived at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Tokyo Dome-filling supershow Wrestle Kingdom 12, garbed in Destiny 2 cosplay. The Canadian-born champ sported an Osiris-inspired helmet and cape, complete with a handmade replica of Vigilance Wing, one of the game’s exotic pulse rifles.
This isn’t the first time Kenny Omega has let his fanboy flag fly. Omega takes his name from Omega Weapon, one of Final Fantasy’s most difficult foes. He learned Japanese to read his favorite manga, Hajime no Ippo. He’s really good at Street Fighter. His in-ring finishing maneuver is called “The One Winged Angel.” I could go on, but the interesting thing about Kenny Omega isn’t that he’s a bona fide nerd — it’s the fantasy that he embodies.
Kenny Omega gets to be exactly who he is, while still being taken seriously for what he can do. He goes deep on JRPGs and leads the most popular worldwide faction in pro wrestling (maybe you’ve seen the t-shirts). He comes to the ring in cosplay and goes head to head with wrestling legends.
Kenny is basically both the president of your high school anime club and the captain of the football team. He’s like the protagonist in a Big-type story, where instead of a kid waking up as an adult, he’s an otaku who finds that he’s suddenly both incredibly swole and one of the best pro wrestlers alive. Destiny cosplay or not, Kenny Omega is among the most compelling reasons to watch pro wrestling in 2018.
