AEW's new Women's Champion, Hikaru Shida, rocked some gear that will be familiar to PlayStation fans of multiple generations at Double or Nothing. Shida wore a palette-swapped tribute to Final Fantasy VII's Tifa, who recently made a comeback in the game's remake. However, Shida's video game shout-out has nothing on her co-worker/boss, Kenny Omega.
Omega wears his video game influences on his figurative and literal sleeve. They're as baked into his character as beer and Bible Verses were for "Stone Cold" Steve Austin.
Omega's most obvious gaming reference is his finisher, the One Winged Angel. The move was built up to mythic proportions during his run in New Japan. No one kicked out of it, including his rival Kazuchika Okada, who kicks out of everything. It's a Final Fantasy VII reference, to Sephiroth's battle music in that game and Kingdom Hearts. Omega as also worn a Sephiroth-inspired jacket as entrance gear.
A less obvious Final Fantasy reference is Omega's ring name itself. He chose it as a reference to the Omega Weapon boss that's appeared multiple times in the series, including classics entries like FF VI and VIII.
Additionally, Omega has used a version of Mega Man antagonist Dr. Wily's boss music as an entrance theme, but he's more synonymous with another Capcom franchise: He's an avowed Street Fighter fanatic. He calls his signature running knee strike the V-Trigger, a reference to a play mechanic that was introduced in Street Fighter V.
Omega has also integrated Ryu and Ken's iconic fireball, the hadouken, into his move set. It's not something he's broken out much since becoming a main event level wrestler in NJPW, but he does still use it on special occasions.
One of those occasions was last year's Fyter Fest. The AEW show was held alongside the C.E.O. Fighting Game Championship in Orlando. It followed in the footsteps of a similar show Omega booked at C.E.O. the year before, while still working for NJPW.
To mark the occasion, Omega and the Young Bucks cosplayed as Street Fighter's Akuma, Ryu and Ken. The Bucks entered to the Street Fighter II theme song. Not to be outdone, Omega recreated one of Akuma's super moves on an overly enthusiastic "fan" who ran up the entrance ramp and posed with the Bucks.
Toward the end of the match, the Elite faced off with all three of their opponents, the Lucha Brothers and Laredo Kid, in the middle of the ring. After being staggered by superkicks, the Elite responded with triple hadouken palm strikes, to a huge reaction from the audience.
Omega's not just a fan of classic franchises. He's also loves 2015's Undertale, an indie RPG reminiscent of Nintendo's EarthBound. Omega was a latecomer to the game, naming it his game of the year in a 2018 conversation with fellow wrestling superstar/gamer Xavier Woods.
Omega's fandom led him to commission two entrance videos from its creator, Toby Fox. Omega submitted the first to NJPW to run before what turned out to be his final match with the company, at Wrestle Kingdom 13. NJPW declined to use it, as it contradicted the story they were telling with Omega as a heel, so he uploaded to the Elite's Youtube channel.
The second video aired in full on an episode of Dynamite. It featured a demonic variation of NJPW's lion logo and made reference to Omega's former tag team partner, Kota Ibushi, who stayed with NJPW when Omega left. Omega rejected NJPW demon's message that his friends in AEW would abandon him. He then entered the arena cosplaying as Undertale's Sans. His music for the entrance was Megalovania, a popular song from the game.
Omega's video game fandom is authentic. It's not an affectation filtered through people who don't get it, like TJP's character in WWE. The best wrestling characters are who the performer is turned up to 11; Omega's version just happens to be a video game nerd who can throw a mean knee strike in real life.