Ahead of his IWGP Heavyweight Championship main event against Kazuchika Okada at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th, Kenny Omega spoke to UPROXX's Austin Heiberg about that match, his career, and WWE's recent hiring spree of independent stars.

The year began with WWE signing AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows after their contracts with New Japan Pro Wrestling had expired, and the remainder of 2016 only saw more wrestlers from outside of the company sign with WWE.

After the conclusion of the Cruiserweight Classic, the addition of Raw's cruiserweight division and the introduction of 205 Live brought several wrestlers to their main roster at once, while Roderick Strong, Tommy End, Big Damo, and Crazy Mary Dobson are just the latest notable names to join the Performance Center and NXT.

Omega commented on those hiring practices by saying that he feels that the company is hiring people just to hire them.

"It seems as though we’re headed towards a monopoly, if I were to speak honestly." Omega said. "WWE is hiring people just to hire them. That’s fine, and I’m happy for whoever’s happy to collect a paycheck from them. A lot of my good friends are now receiving work and receiving money. But sadly, a lot of those people are signing with WWE just to ride the pine. You can’t put all these guys on TV. On one end, you have these mom-and-pop indy superstars getting TV time, and people all around the world are able to see the art of what they do. And in a lot of cases, they’re enjoying it, which is fantastic. I’m really happy about that."

While Omega said that he's happy for wrestlers who are enjoying their time in WWE, he went on to discuss the potential impact that WWE signing so many people could have on independent promotions and expressed that he wants to be an option for viewers who want more out of their wrestling programming.

"But as everyone gets picked up, as all these independent promotions have to shut down and close their doors because of WWE scooping everyone up, everyone’s going to lose an option. And that guy you saw for that one tournament, you’re not going to see him anymore." Omega said. "You can’t put him on TV, there’s only so much time. So eventually, people are going to run out of options. I want to be one of the options for people. You want to go eat a McDonald’s hamburger? That’s cool. McDonald’s can be good. Do I like them every day? Do I want to eat McDonald’s seven days a week for every meal? Probably not. Eventually, I’m going to want to go someplace for a triple-A grade steak. I may not necessarily have the traffic flow of McDonald’s, but guess what? The quality is there, and it’s for the distinguished wrestling viewer. People who are wanting something more out of their programming. That’s what I want to provide for people in 2017."