Alan "5" Angels Reveals Original Plans For The Kenny Omega Match That Changed His Life
The April 22, 2020 edition of AEW Dynamite featured Kenny Omega defeating Alan "5" Angels in a match that is on record as going for 6 minutes and 25 seconds. The bout took place in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was taped at the Nightmare Factory in Norcross, Georgia.
Angels recently appeared on the Missing The Marks podcast and revealed that the match was originally scheduled to go for just 4 minutes. The match led to AEW signing Angels, but there was criticism against the bout as many felt like Omega, being a top star in AEW, should've squashed Angels.
"It was actually only like 6 minutes and 30 seconds or something like that," Angels said. "The funny thing is we were actually slated for 4 (minutes), which is kind of the crazy part because we went way over, but if anybody can go over, it's him."
Angels continued and said he felt like the match would go over the allotted time when they first got together to map the bout out.
"I met up with him and we started talking about the match and I think originally it sounded like we had planned a 4 minute match," Angels recalled. "But then he kept adding stuff that he wanted to do and I was like, 'I don't think this is going to be 4 minutes.'
"Once we planned it all, we went out there and we just did it and it went about 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Everybody says, 'Oh, he went 10 minutes with Alan Angels,' It was only 6 minutes, guys, come on."
Angels praised Omega's work and commented on how the match impacted his career.
"He was super giving that day," Angels said of Omega. "I have four people in mind that I really owe my career to and he's definitely on the list. A lot of negativity towards that match but a lot of positive stuff too. I definitely got more bookings out of that and I got a job out of it, so I'm not mad about it."
Angels recalled how Cody Rhodes once told him how he didn't think he would know who Angels was if it weren't for the 2020 Omega match. Angels said that was kind of an insult, but Rhodes wasn't wrong as that is the match that put him on the map. Angels said the match with Omega changed his life.
Angels later worked a rematch with Omega on the November 3, 2021 edition of AEW Dynamite. Omega, who was then the AEW World Champion, picked up the win in the opener that night, which went just under 8 minutes. The non-title match was part of the build to Omega's unsuccessful title defense against current AEW World Champion "Hangman" Adam Page at Full Gear on November 13.
You can see footage from the Angels vs. Omega matches below.
Angels continues to work as a member of The Dark Order. He took a loss to Andrade El Idolo on this week's AEW "Dark: Elevation" episode. The week before that, The Dark Order defeated The Gunn Club and Chaos Project in a ten-man match on Elevation, and that came after Angels and 10 came up short against reDRagon on the March 25 edition of Rampage.
Angels recently worked what looks to be his first indie matches of 2022. He defeated Robert Martyr at West Coast Pro's As Real As It Gets event on March 12, then took a loss to Freelance Wrestling Champion Robert Anthony at Freelance Wrestling's A Shift In Power show on March 18, and took another loss to Freelance Underground Independent Champion Storm Grayson at Freelance Underground's Double Back event on March 19.
Stay tuned for more.
(H/T to F4Wonline for the quotes)