Before turning into arguably the best wrestler in the world, Kenny Omega signed a developmental deal with WWE in October 2005, reporting to Deep South Wrestling.
During his time in developmental, Omega was trained by Bill DeMott, who served as the DSW trainer from 2004 to 2007.
Speaking on his Twitch stream, Omega was asked if everyone calls him Kenny, when he brought up DeMott and how he was trained.
"Somehow, that name survived all throughout my life. Even when I was able to go to developmental, I was somehow able to cook up a story to allow myself to be Kenny Omega. I also think they allowed me to remain Kenny Omega because Bill DeMott at that point was kind of like, 'I'm gonna make sure you never get called up anyway so you can do whatever the fuck you want.' 'Cool, Kenny Omega it is, brah. It's all good.' Sometimes I wonder how Bill is doing and what's happening with him. I would love to speak with him again, shake his hand. I always had a theory that he was just trying to continue the character that he was famous for on Tough Enough. I do think Bill DeMott, the man, the person, he's probably a nice guy. He's probably funny. Probably. He said some funny things sometimes. You could say he said things that are humorous. That's the best I got [laughs]. No, I would love to shake his hand. I honestly mean that he allowed me to build a lot of character. Character that I never would have been able to build, character that I wouldn't have been able to allow me to survive the environment and the American Indies. He toughened us up, allowed for me to develop a palette to eat shit on a daily basis over and over again, get the fuck beaten out of me on a daily basis over and over again. Be told that you're nothing, that you'll never be anything, that you're not good enough, that everything you do is wrong, that you suck, but he taught me, through that, if you can endure that, you emerge as a better person, a tougher person. For that, I would love to shake his hand or buy him a meal or whatever. Have a fun conversation with him," said Omega.
DeMott was released by WWE in January 2007. Omega has often spoken about the poor treatment he received from DeMott during his time at DSW.
Elsewhere during the stream, Omega had kind words to say about Bayley. You can find his full comments here.
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