If you thought the return of as big a star as Kenny Omega seemed to come about out of nowhere, you wouldn’t be alone. In fact, the upcoming appearance caught even “The Cleaner” himself by surprise.

“I remember thinking about maybe, maybe showing up to Winnipeg,” he said. “It really was just a maybe. And then I saw that my sister, my parents, my auntie who lives in Calgary, she had said, ‘Oh my goodness, we’ve heard the big news.’ And I said, ‘What big news?’ And they said, ‘Yeah, the arena is advertising your return.'”

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While Omega admitted to being roughly 80% on board for the return at the time of the news, relayed to him by his family after the venue for Wednesday’s “Dynamite,” The Canada Life Centre, promoted him as a sure thing, he figured at that point, he might as well dive in with both feet. “I guess that 80% becomes 100, whatever,” Omega said.

At that point, if he was indeed going to be there, Omega recognized that maybe AEW itself should hitch their wagons to his comeback, and he reached out to Tony Khan. “I called the boss,” he explained, “and said, ‘Hey, man. If you wanna run a graphic or something, I guess I’ll show up.'” Lo and behold, a lower-third graphic was run on last week’s “Dynamite” and now Kenny Omega fans can start to get excited to see him on television once again.

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As for how much he’ll be involved, that remains up in the air, but the former AEW World Champion doesn’t rule out mixing it up if need be. “I’m not afraid to get physical if it comes down to it, I guess,” Omega said with a smile.