Charlie Kirk was shot and killed in September 2025 and somebody on social media thought it was a good time to use Kirk’s murder as a punchline.
Kenny Omega, the current All Elite Wrestling World Champion, saw the post and went after the person who wrote it.
What Omega said next is the kind of thing most people in pro wrestling would have quietly scrolled past. He didn’t.
What the Post Said and How Omega Responded
An X user took a shot at fellow AEW star Will Ospreay’s mic skills, writing, “Will Ospreay is as bad on the mic as charlie kirk, but can’t sell the neck as well as he did.”
That’s a reference to two things at once — Ospreay’s real-life neck injury that nearly ended his career, and the manner in which Kirk was killed.
Omega, who is friends with Ospreay inside and outside the ring, slammed the poster. “What the f*** is wrong with you? It isn’t hard to try having some class,” he wrote in response.
He didn’t leave it there.
“A dear friend battles back from a career threatening injury, is no doubt still fighting pain today, and is somehow mocked and compared to a dude that was murdered. I get that a joke is a joke but these things should really be kept separate in my opinion.”
When another user pushed back and defended the original commenter, Omega dialed it back a notch — but the reason he gave made his initial reaction make a lot more sense.
“Please extend my apologies, genuinely. Perhaps I’ve become too sensitive after my own brush with death. I also know of Will’s efforts behind the scenes more than most so it was sad to see such a harsh comparison,” the current AEW champion added.
Omega Knows Something About Cheating Death
That line about a “brush with death” wasn’t rhetorical flair.
In late 2023, Omega was hospitalized with a severe case of diverticulitis, a life-threatening colon infection. Doctors told him he was 24 hours from dying. Omega later underwent surgery, removing 25 centimeters of his colon.
He spent more than a year away from the ring recovering. The fact that he’s back competing at the championship level at all is remarkable.
So when somebody throws around a murder reference as a throwaway insult, Omega’s not reacting the way a guy who hasn’t stared down his own mortality would react. He’s reacting the way somebody who has.
Omega knows death – especially a political assassination – is nothing to joke about.
And Ospreay’s neck situation is no joke either. The man wrestled through serious spinal damage for years before finally getting surgery. The idea that his pain gets used as a prop in a cheap online dunk is exactly the kind of thing Omega wasn’t going to let slide.
Charlie Kirk’s Murder and the Trial Still Playing Out
Kirk, a conservative commentator and the founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed during an event on the campus of Utah Valley University in September. Tyler Robinson was arrested in Kirk’s murder.
Kirk was 31 years old when he was fatally shot as he addressed a crowd of roughly 3,000 people during an event on Utah Valley University’s campus.
His family has had to sit through preliminary hearings and watch evidence get presented in open court while the political world he helped build continues on without him.
Prosecutors have said they intend to seek the death penalty against Robinson, who is charged with aggravated murder, felony use of a firearm, committing a violent offense in the presence of a child, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice.
The case drew national attention from the moment it broke. Kirk built Turning Point USA into one of the most influential conservative youth organizations in the country, and his assassination sent shockwaves through the Right.
According to prosecutors’ charging documents, when Robinson was asked why he did it, he stated “there is too much evil and the guy [Charlie Kirk] spreads too much hate.”
That’s the backdrop against which some anonymous account decided to make a neck joke.
Omega’s response wasn’t overwrought. He didn’t lecture anyone about political violence or turn it into a speech. He just called it what it was — classless. That’s about the right temperature for something like this.
But it’s worth sitting with for a moment. Kirk was a real person with a wife, parents who attended his preliminary hearing in Provo, and a movement he poured his life into. He was killed on September 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University, the first stop of his “American Comeback Tour.” The trial is still grinding through the courts. His family is still living this.
And yet the reflexive instinct of some corners of the internet — the ones that spent years trying to destroy Kirk’s reputation while he was alive — is to keep swinging even after he’s gone. That’s not edgy. That’s just ugly.
Omega, of all people, didn’t have to say anything. He’s a pro wrestler. Nobody expects him to be the conscience of social media. But he has his own history with mortality, and he knew it was wrong to mock Kirk’s assassination, and he wasn’t in the mood to pretend the post was acceptable.
Good for him.
Kenny Omega is set to defend his AEW World Championship against TNT Champion Kevin Knight at the upcoming Redemption pay-per-view. The winner of that match will go on to defend the world title against Will Ospreay at All In next month.
But the fact that Omega would break character to slam an internet troll for turning Kirk’s murder into a chance to score points in a wrestling feud speaks volumes about Omega.
Sources: Fox News, Wrestlezone, eWrestlingNews, CBS Sports, CNN, Deseret News