AEW: Kenny Omega on Reason for Fight Forever Delay, Kyle O’Reilly Injury Update, More News

Feb 18, 2023

Kenny Omega Comments on Issues with ESRB as Reason for AEW Fight Forever Release Delay

A recent episode of the Swerve City Podcast featured Kenny Omega as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Omega confirming that the recent reports of AEW’s upcoming Fight Forever video game release date being delayed due to issues with the ESRB were true.

“It’s totally coming out [laughs]. I’m not sure how much we had to scale it back, but man, I loved it. You could make the ring look like a murder scene if you wanted to. I just hope there is still some way to get a semblance of that. I hope we don’t dumb it down too much. It was fun. It’s what we get every week on TV anyway. It could gory, but no one is getting dismembered, no one is dying. Maybe it could look that way if you beat someone up that bad. There are a lot of things we haven’t shown in the game yet. What I will say is, the game is not a wrestling simulator. I looked at other wrestling simulator games, and I know people love them, and there is absolutely a place for them, but I feel if we go the simulation route, no one is ever going to do it better than Fire Pro because they’ve had decades of practice doing that and they have a system all implemented. What Yuke’s does best is the arcade style of wrestling. What our guys do best is the animator, the guys from AKI. Having those guys cook up animations to correct old animations (from WWF No Mercy) and kind of seminar the Yuke’s people into how they go about doing their stuff rather than MoCap but taking the point of articulation to show the generation of movement or philosophy or force. It’s kind of an ongoing process.
It does suck that the rating has held us back a little bit because we really wanted to get it out. The longer the time goes by, this finished product that we have of a game is just going to be a little dated. A lot of the same people are going to be there and are there, but some aren’t, and you’re going to wonder why I’ve seen this guy on TV for weeks, why isn’t he in the game? It’s because the game has been done, but we’ve had to try to get our game in a position to be rated so that we can sell it. Now, I can positively say that we’re headed back into a right direction. The fun and zany stuff that I was able to implement, I hope people have fun with it. I think the game really shines when you can do the crazy stuff, but if you want to have serious bare-bones wrestling match, you can definitely wrestle the way you want to and it will look that way, but if you want to do crazy stuff and want to ride around on a skateboard and do a dropkick, you can do it. There is fun stuff like that implemented.”

Omega also gave his thoughts about some of the difficulties that has been encountered during the game’s development.

“Every kind of unique weapon has to have its own unique set of physics, and that’s a challenge. If you have a chair, great, but that doesn’t mean the chair reacts the same way a ladder does. You have to go back to the drawing board to program how it is that you interact with a ladder, how you can interact with a table. Things are on fire, maybe. Wet floor sign or garbage can, there are different things you can do with all those items. Getting those all glitch free, or as glitch free as possible. I know fans are going to have a heyday trying to find the funny stuff that they can, and I know they’re going to find it, everyone finds glitches in everything. It’ll be whatever, I’ll laugh. I would expect to, very soon, start to see some new information and video.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Kyle O’Reilly Injury Status Update

As noted before, Kyle O’Reilly has been out of action for AEW since this past June due to a neck-related and other injuries.

A recent episode of the In The Kliq podcast featured AEW CEO Tony Khan as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Khan providing an update on the status of O’Reilly’s rehab from injury.

“He’s been doing better (Khan said about Kyle O’Reilly). Hopefully, we’ll look forward to getting him back but it’s a number of injuries and a tough recovery and really, really miss him and hopefully he’ll be back with us in AEW soon.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

AEW News & Notes

As noted before, Jeff Hardy was arrested this past June in Volusia County, Florida following a drunk driving incident. Hardy has been out of action for AEW since that time due to his current suspension over his DUI arrest. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Hardy is currently scheduled to attend a pre-trial hearing on February 23rd. Johnson reported that this upcoming hearing is listed to be a case management conference based on recent court records.

As noted before, CM Punk was involved in a backstage fight incident following AEW’s All Out 2022 event this past September and is currently not expected to return to the company following the end of his current suspension. Punk recently shared a video on Instagram from Ice T’s Instagram page about forgiveness over bad deeds and not needing to be around people who wronged you to forgive them.

While responding to a fan question on Twitter, Chris Jericho stated that he always loved working with CM Punk during their time in WWE. Jericho previously had called Punk a “locker room cancer” due to the issues he caused following the infamous backstage brawl at this past September’s All Out 2022 event.

As noted before, Jon Moxley’s scheduled appearance for Over The Top Wrestling’s Scrappermania 7 event on March 18th in Dublin, Ireland is currently in serious doubt due to Moxley currently being double booked for an AEW house show event that night in Troy, Ohio. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that there has been no change in status regarding Moxley’s double booked situation for OTT and AEW as of this past Thursday. Meltzer reported that OTT officials originally had asked and were granted permission by AEW to book Moxley for their event but this took place before AEW’s announcement and talent plans for the debut of their house show tours.

Friday’s AEW Rampage Slam Dunk show in Laredo, Texas featured an AEW World Trios Championship match between AR Fox & Top Flight and champions The Elite, which was won by The Elite. This match involved The Elite wearing basketball-related shirts and several basketball spots. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that the reason for the basketball-related stuff in the match was due to this being a request from Warner Bros Discovery officials to help promote that night’s NBA All-Star 2023 festivities on TNT.

Friday’s AEW Rampage show, which was taped this past Wednesday, also featured the surprise return of Keith Lee. Following Swerve Strickland’s disqualification loss to Dustin Rhodes, Strickland and Parker Boudreaux launched a post-match attack resulting in Lee making a surprise appearance and run-in brawl to save Rhodes. This was Lee’s first appearance in AEW since this past December due to his storyline injury from a cinder block attack at the hands of Strickland.