AEW's Kenny Omega Forced to Relinquish AAA Mega Championship Due to Injury

11/22/2021 03:33 pm EST

Ever since Kenny Omega dropped the AEW World Championship to Hangman Page at Full Gear reports have been popping up about just how injured "The Cleaner" has been over the past year. The latest reports from the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer stated Omega was expected to undergo surgeries for an injured shoulder and knee as well as an abdominal hernia. Omega announced on last week's AEW Dynamite that he would be stepping away from AEW programming while he recovers, then on Monday it was confirmed that he would be relinquishing the AAA Mega Championship for the Lucha Libre AAA promotion. Omega had held that title for a whopping 765 days and was scheduled to face Hijo del Vikingo at Triplemania Regia II on Dec. 4. 

"Kenny has been an incredible champion," AAA's Konnan told Sports Illustrated when the news broke. "He will be first in line for the title when he gets back."

Omega cut a promo shortly after the news broke, claiming that AAA was "stealing" the belt from him due to his injury. He promised to come back and defeat whatever "hero" AAA manages to build up in the meantime, break his own record for the longest reign as Mega Champion and crown himself the greatest luchador of all time. 

Omega talked with SI about the matchup with Vikingo prior to Full Gear, saying "This is a once-in-a-lifetime talent. He brings something to the table that is completely different from everyone else. Once I started to do AAA and first saw Vikingo wrestle in person, I couldn't help but think about the first time I saw (Kota) Ibushi and (Will) Ospreay.

While Omega's reign with the gold eclipsed two years, his defenses were not as numerous as his reigns with the AEW or Impact Wolrd Championships from earlier this year. He beat Rey Fenix for the title back in October 2019 and went on to have matches with Jack Evans, Dragon Lee, Sammy Guevara, Laredo Kid and Andrade El Idolo with the title on the line. Stay tuned for more updates on Omega's situation as they become available! 

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