Finally, a Chance to See Kenny Omega Compete With a WWE Star – Sorta

Community Effort Orlando–or CEO, for short– is a large-scale annual fighting game tournament in Orlando, Florida, that takes place every year in June. The event has long had a professional wrestling motif. But last year saw the organizer of the event, Alex Jebailey, bring yet another dimension to the theme.

Last year saw a surprise exhibition between the WWE’s Xavier Woods and New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Kenny Omega in Street Fighter V. Both wrestlers were competent in the game, and pulled off a great show that left fans of both fighting games and wrestling speechless.

Recently, Shoryuken.com caught up with Alex Jebailey at a tournament, and he explained why he started the wrestling theme at CEO:

I just love the crowd reactions. The storylines of WWE are good and bad here and there, but I still keep watching because the performers put on a great show. I think the way CEO is themed helps bring out the personalities of a lot of players. Like when you see K-Brad and Dieminion’s entrances, you can see that. But you’re playing a fighting game–two people head to head with each other, winner survives. It’s the same thing in wrestling. There’s no big bumps or spots like in wrestling. People like to entertain and have fun on stage. I like seeing the pop-offs, and I think the theme really is the perfect mold for fighting games.

He also discussed what it took to schedule the exhibition between Woods and Omega:

That was just a perfect coincidence. We had been talking Xavier Woods for months, but we weren’t sure if he was going to make it. When they announced the WWE show in Orlando on Sunday, it worked out that he booked a red-eye flight Friday, and came in Saturday morning. He let me know that he was coming. We snuck him in and got the exhibition. It worked out amazingly.

Jebailey also stated that for 2017, Omega was going to make a return, and was “100%.” As for other names he would be interested in pursuing, he had more than a short list:

Shawn Michaels–who is one of my favorites–and Chris Jericho would be an amazing person to have at the event. The Miz and Seth Rollins both play video games. A lot of them game now. I met Sasha Banks in person and she loves gaming. I also have a friend who is close with her significant other, so I think any of those would be entertaining and would love to have them out.

It would be awesome if all of The New Day would come out. But Kenny vs. Xavier was so amazing that any other wrestler would have a hard time topping it…But other people? I would consider The Rock obviously as well as Stone Cold. Anybody would be awesome.

So it looks like CEO this year will be one you don’t want to miss either as a gamer or a mark.