Will Ospreay appeared on AEW television for the first time during the build to AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, but overall, Kenny Omega isn't particularly impressed with his body of work. The Cleaner left NJPW to help start AEW in 2019, leaving the likes of Ospreay behind to take up his mantle as the promotion's top star. And while some of The Aerial Assasian's matches are highly regarded among wrestling fans, Omega doesn't think they are quite up to par with some of the older classics that he was involved in.
During his time in NJPW, Kenny Omega shattered preconceived notions of what a wrestling match could and couldn't be. He broke Dave Meltzer's famed five-star rating scale more than once, and his trilogy with Kazuchika Okada produced some of the most critically acclaimed matches in the history of the sport. Each match was built off of the one that proceeded it brilliantly and launched both men's careers into the stratosphere.
Omega, based on recent comments made to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, doesn't believe that Osperay's similarly rated matches are as memorable as his. "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," he said. "I don't want to say anything bad about Will." Omega reiterated a few times that he wasn't trying to speak poorly about Osprey, going on to remark 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."
For context, Omega was speaking about the different paths that Will Ospreay and Jay White have taken since being handed the reigns in NJPW. Kenny said that, while Will was out pounding the pavement on the independent scene, White was trying to figure out how to make New Japan as strong as he could. Both wrestlers have been successful on the roads they've taken, Omega just prefers what Jay White has done over the last few years.
Ospreay and White have been intricately involved in the build to AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, as both were made available by NJPW much sooner than the likes of Okada. Okada, of course, debuted on the go-home show of AEW Dynamite, setting up a four-way match with Adam Cole, Hangman Adam Page and White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in what could very well end up being an instant classic. Meanwhile, Ospreay will be defending NJPW's United States Championship against AEW's Orange Cassidy. AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door is set to take place on June 26.
Source: Fightful/YouTube