As Kenny Omega steps into his latest feud in AEW, he’s also taking a moment to look back at the rivalries that helped define his time in Japan.

Speaking on the Battleground Podcast, Omega reflected on the opponents who brought out the very best in him during his run in New Japan. While many immediately point to Kazuchika Okada as his greatest rival, Omega acknowledged the widespread appreciation for that series while highlighting others that resonated just as strongly with dedicated fans.

“I think a lot of people sort of default to the [Kazuchika] Okada one and I understand why,” Omega said. “But I would say that for fans that were primarily New Japan fans, they also would argue that they really enjoyed my series of matches that I had with [Tetsuya] Naito. They really enjoyed the series of matches I had with [Tomohiro] Ishii.”

Omega then shifted focus to one of the most personal and layered stories of his career, his long running connection with Kota Ibushi as part of the Golden Lovers.

“Some of the people know me more because of the Golden Lovers stuff, which is also fantastic,” he explained. “And I think that was some of the most proud storytelling that I’ve ever done in my career because the onus was all on us to continue that story forward and to always sort of implant that in the things we had done when maybe the promoters or the bookers didn’t see the value in it.”

What made that story stand out to Omega was the way it transcended promotions and timelines, evolving naturally over the years rather than being confined to a single company.

“We had always sort of wanted to not insult the fans intelligence,” Omega said. “Regardless of what promotion we were in, we wanted to show that there was this interconnectivity and these human emotions, and that life doesn’t end just because of promotion changes. Relationships don’t end because of promotion changes. And it was cool that we could see this multiple promotion spanning storyline that took about a decade to see the grand finale and to be able to be at the forefront of an actual real long term story where the onus was completely on us to tell.”