Despite management not being thrilled about the idea, Ibushi himself stuck his neck out for what would become The Golden Lovers. “He said ‘I believe in this too,'” Omega said. ‘”If we screw this up, if this is a complete–if fans don’t get with it, if they said hey we’d rather have seen these guys mix it up in a singles instead,’ then Kenny’s gone anyway, and we’ll just go back to plan A.’ But we did the Golden Lovers thing, and it worked out.” 

From 2009 onwards, Omega and Ibushi would go on to become two of DDT’s greatest competitors, both as a team and singles wrestlers, and despite their careers drifting apart during the 2010s, with Ibushi becoming a heavyweight star while Omega was still a junior heavyweight, they are still best friends to this day. Both men had to deal with major health problems throughout 2024 as Omega was battling diverticulitis at the same time as Ibushi breaking both of his ankles in NOAH, but they not only motivated each other to get back to full fitness, they also tried to figure out how to work around the limitations their own bodies have put on them.

“People have this expectation, we always kept using that word, expectation…We said ‘is it that the fans have it, or is this the expectation we’re placing on ourselves to be a certain way? I think when we really changed our perspective as to what we could give to the wrestling world to be just a little bit different, but could make everyone happy all the same, we have other talents.” Omega rounded out by saying Ibushi’s experience in kickboxing makes him able to focus his arsenal on striking, while Omega’s previous ventures into MMA and Jiu-Jitsu allow him to create a much more ground based style.

Please credit “Wrestling Observer Radio” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.