Just four days into 2023 Will Ospreay met Kenny Omega inside the Tokyo Dome at the 17th edition of New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom event in a match that many fans expected to be a match of the year contender. But did the colossal encounter between two of the best wrestlers working today deliver on its lofty expectations?
The highly-anticipated bout between Omega and Ospreay gave fans a breathless 34 minutes of intense action and earned instant critical acclaim from fans online. Kenny Omega came out victorious, capturing the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship in the process, and offered up another contender for one of the greatest matches of all time.
With two of Dave Meltzer’s favourite wrestlers delivering a masterpiece inside the Tokyo Dome, the only question was how many stars would he give to this instant classic?
Will Ospreay Earns Yet Another 5-Star Plus Match Rating From Dave Meltzer
In a stellar 2022, Will Ospreay performed in an incredible eight matches that were rated five stars or higher by Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.
The British superstar has picked up 2023 exactly where he left off, with his Wrestle Kingdom 17 bout against Kenny Omega receiving a 6.25 star rating from Meltzer in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
This latest star rating puts Will Ospreay as the joint-most decorated wrestler of all time, tied with Mitsuharu Misawa with an astounding 25 5-star plus match ratings to their names.
At just 29 years of age and showing no signs of slowing down on his incredible run of revered matches, it is surely only a matter of time before Ospreay goes on to absolutely obliterate this record.
Despite enjoying an unprecedented year of highly-celebrated matches in 2022, Ospreay recently told Inside The Ropes’ own Liam Wyatt that he actually didn’t enjoy one of his 5-star rated matches from last year.