Both Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay are heralded as two of the best wrestlers in the world – according to Omega, though, Ospreay is easily forgettable!
The conversation of the best pro wrestler in the world always featured the inclusion of Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay. Both are immense performers in their own right and have gathered their own collections of five-star rated matches by Dave Meltzer.
Interestingly, the duo are actually joint-fifth for the most Meltzer-rated five-star – or more – clashes, with nineteen apiece. Omega’s highest rating was seven stars, while Ospreay’s was slightly under at six stars.
Perhaps that’s why, then, Kenny Omega has branded Will Ospreay as “forgettable”. Speaking with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Omega joked that the current IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion was “great at moves” but his list of Dave Meltzer-branded spectacles was forgettable:
“In a different vein, you have Will Ospreay, he can do anything. He’s strong, he’s fast, he’s agile, he’s a great representative for New Japan for all of the dudes that are hitting the pavement and making the indie dates, he is their spokesperson to give everyone that current day five-star match that we all know and love, some of us. Different strokes for different folks. Ospreay, he’s doing great in his role, not my thing so much.
Jay White, he’s become the star that they needed. I can’t say one over another, but they do work quite well harmoniously. A guy like Will, who is great at moves and has a list of 20 very forgettable five-star matches. [laughs] I’m going a little too hard on Will. Will is great.”
Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay have wrestled a number of matches together, but only one of those was a straightforward singles outing; their first ever match, in fact. ‘The Cleaner’ defeated Ospreay during Pro Wrestling Guerrilla’s All Star Weekend 11 double-header.
Continuing, Omega explained that he does believe Will Ospreay has earned each of his highly-rated contests:
“I don’t want to say anything bad about Will. Here’s the thing, if we’re being completely honest with each other, I do believe that with the current rating system, and how things are viewed, I believe that Will has earned every last one of those five-star performances that he has had.
Do I think that if you go back into the works of some of the legends, I’m even going to throw my name in the hat, even if you go back to when I was having five-star matches and I was that sort of guy, I just think that the matches from back then were more memorable and as hard as Will is working, he just isn’t quite…Will is there…I’m digging myself into a hole here, Will is there and Will is great.
I’m glad to see him in a marquee match against Orange Cassidy. I’m just saying that I think New Japan made the right choice by going with Jay White. He was the star of the two, is all I’m saying.”
Kenny Omega will unfortunately be forced to miss the show he’s alluding to, AEWxNJPW Forbidden Door, due to him still being sidelined with a litany of injuries. It’s unknown when, exactly, he’ll return to the ring.
His series of five-star classics began with his 2016 G1 Climax outing against Tetsuya Naito. Numerous similar outings followed, including his incredible trilogy with Kazuchika Okada. His most recent five-star clash came against Adam Page at last year’s Full Gear pay-per-view, receiving an overall five-and-a-half stars.
As for Will Ospreay, his series of five-star matches kicked off in PWG, as he, Ricochet, and Matt Sydal wrestled Adam Cole and The Young Bucks during the 2016 Battle of Los Angeles. He’s wrestled three acclaimed matches in 2022 alone, facing Kazuchika Okada, Michael Oku, and Zack Sabre Jr.