Kenny Omega Biography

Kenny Omega was born as Tyson Smith on October 16, 1983, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. His mother worked in family services and his father was a transport officer for the Canadian government.

He developed a love for wrestling as a child and watched WWE tapes with great interest. He was athletic and played ice hockey as a goalie.

As a teenager, he decided to pursue wrestling professionally and began training with Top Rope Championship Wrestling (TRCW) in Winnipeg. His promoter at that time was Bobby Jay.

After training with Jay for a year, he made his professional debut in 2000 when he was just 16 years old. He wrestled as part of TRCW for two years. During this time, he developed the “gimmick” Kenny Omega, a Hawaiian surfer.

He graduated from Transcona Collegiate Institute (TCI) in 2001 and enrolled in university. However, he dropped out soon after to pursue a full-time professional wrestling career.

Kenny Omega made his professional debut in the Winnipeg-based promotion Premier Championship Wrestling (PCW) in 2001. In 2003, he won the PCW Heavyweight Championship. The following year, he won the PCW Tag Team Championship.

He was sent to WWE's then-developmental territory, Deep South Wrestling (DSW), in 2005. He did not have a good time and requested to be released from the contract the very next year.

In 2008, he competed for Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) and won the JAPW Heavyweight Championship after beating Low Ki. He lost the title to Jay Lethal at Jersey City Rumble the following year.

In 2011, Kenny Omega defeated Liger during New Japan Pro-Wrestling's inaugural US tour and won the JAPW Light Heavyweight Championship. He also wrestled in tapings for Wrestling Revolution Project the same year and became the new DDT Pro-wrestling’s new World Junior Heavyweight Champion.

He lost the World Junior Heavyweight Champion title to Kai in May 2012. In December of the same year, he beat El Generico to win the KO-D Openweight Championship. In early 2013, he won the DDT Extreme Championship held by Kodaka.

In 2014, he participated in the Power Struggle event as a member of the Bullet Club. In 2015, he defeated Ryusuke Taguchi at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. He successfully defended the title twice in the same year before losing it to Kushida.

Kenny Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the vacant IWGP Intercontinental Championship at The New Beginning in Niigata in February 2016. As part of the group The Young Bucks, he won the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship in April of the same year.

In January 2017, he participated in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 11 and lost to IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada. This match, which lasted 46 minutes and 45 seconds, was appreciated by fellow professional wrestlers.

In July 2017, he defeated Jay Lethal, Tomohiro Ishii, and Michael Elgin in an eight-man tournament to clinch the title of IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion. He defended his title against Juice Robinson in September at Destruction in Kobe and against Yoshi-Hashi in October at the Global Wars: Chicago event and emerged triumphant both times.

He defeated Chris Jericho in a no-disqualification match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in January 2018. However, within a few days, he lost the title to Jay White at The New Beginning in Sapporo.

In June 2018, he claimed the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall after defeating Okada in a two out of three falls match with no time limit. He lost this title to Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 13 in January 2019. He reigned for 209 days.

In February 2019, he signed a four-year contract with All Elite Wrestling (AEW). He participated in the promotion's inaugural event, Double or Nothing in May 2019 and lost to Chris Jericho at the main event.

Along with Adam Page, Kenny Omega defeated the tag team SoCal Uncensored to win the AEW World Tag Team Championship in January 2020. The duo lost the title to FTR (Cash Wheeler and Dax Harwood) in September of the same year. Omega won the AEW World Championship in December.

Kenny Omega retained his AEW World Championship and also clinched the Impact World Championship after defeating Rich Swann in a Winner Takes All match In April 2021. He later took a hiatus from competing due to injuries and made a comeback in August 2022.

Kenny Omega is a big fan of video games and incorporates ideas from video games into his wrestling practices. His ring name was inspired by the Final Fantasy video game series character Omega Weapon.

He used to host a YouTube series called Cleaner's Corner. He played his favorite video games in the series. He loves to attend video game conventions when he has leisure time.

He abstains from alcohol, tobacco, and drug consumption and considers himself straight edge.

He has been living in Japan for a few years and has Japanese citizenship. He loves Japanese culture and is fluent in the Japanese language.

He is a very private person and hardly talks about his personal life. There are rumors that he is dating Japanese professional wrestler, martial artist, and actress Hikaru Shida.