Eric Bischoff has joined the growing list of people heaping praise on the recent clash between Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega.
After Omega emerged victorious in a match between the pair at Wrestle Kingdom in January, the rivals renewed hostilities at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, and somehow the match surpassed all expectations.
The pair stole each other’s moves, went counter-for-counter and punch-for-punch, and blood flowed by the bucket load.
For a shade under 40 minutes, Ospreay and Omega hit each other with everything they had as the crowd spent most of the contest on their feet, applauding the increasingly ludicrous displays from the men in the ring. In the end, it was Ospreay who picked up an emotionally draining win to earn a measure of revenge over his rival.
Many fans and critics have since claimed the match was an “instant classic,” crossing their fingers there will be a third installment to the rivalry at All In.
Speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast, Eric Bischoff has now joined those praising the clash. The WWE Hall of Famer compared Ospreay to Shawn Michaels while tipping his hat to both men for their performances. Bischoff explained that the stars managed to mix a modern in-ring style with old-school tension, storytelling, and psychology.
“I did see it,” Bischoff said. I will also admit that I have not seen much of Will Ospreay’s work or Omega’s for that matter. I was blown away. I hate to make comparisons ’cause everybody’s unique and different in their own way, but Ospreay reminds me of a tougher Shawn Michaels. He’s got the look, obviously his in-ring capabilities are just otherworldly at this point. It was like the new school, the very athletic, physical, dynamic, incredibly difficult and high risk type of offense, it had all that but it also had Nick Bockwinkel-Verne Gagne esque psychology.”
Eric Bischoff Less Impressed With “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry
While Bischoff might have been full of superlatives for Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay, he was less impressed with the performance of “Jungle Boy” Jack Perry. On the night, Bischoff tweeted that he “couldn’t crack an egg with a hammer,” and followed up on his podcast by questioning why Perry was even on the show.
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