Shawn Michaels vs Kenny Omega

[NintendoLogic]

That doesn't look all that different from how Ricky Steamboat would sell his throat in his matches with Randy Savage.

[elliott]

Its weird to me that this thread has so many replies and Misawa vs Danielson has 3. 

[Dav'oh]

It's the polarising natures of Kenny and Shawn, I'd wager, and that people can find much larger holes in their cases than Bryan's and Misawa's, thus engendering more comments?

[justinsdrown]

Michaels for me. Shawn does all the little things so well. It’s something that I think Omega is frequently missing in his matches. Not in every match. But in most I feel like Omega is gunning it from high spot to higher spot.

[Tetsujin]

Shawn, by far.

Except a couple of exceptions here and there, Omega only knows how to work one way, and that way is not always what the match/opponent/context needed the most. Shawn has show far more versatility throughout his whole career: great as a young babyface in a tag team, both being the FIP and the hot tag man, great as a midcard heel, absolutely great in gimmick matches, great main event babyface in the 90s, can work comedy and being the most serious and dramatic guy when needed, can work fun sprints on TV and long epics on PPV, can put lesser talent over. He can do almost anything and everything I can think for a pro wrestler (and one thing I can think he's not great at, his matwork, is not something where Kenny shines either), while I can only imagine one good thing Omega is good at, and not always (Kenny has done plenty of comedy, I know, but he's always seemed very cringe to me).

Both are some of the very few guys with a five star match on my books, but Streak vs Career is slightly better than the first Naito/Omega. Shawn has much more high ranked matches for me, too: the other two big Taker matches, the two Cena matches, the Unsanctioned Jericho match, Rockers vs Rose/Sommers, the Ironman with Bret, the Foley match, the Flair match, the Ladder with Hall, the IYH Diesel match, the RAW Benoit match, the Angle match, Rockers vs Arn/Tully... From Kenny, I can count the G1 finals with Naito, the Dome matches with Okada and Tanahashi, the Unsanctioned Mox match, the first Ospreay match, one or two Ishii matches, and the first Jericho match.

Shawn has some bad habits, but I've never felt his bad habits ruined any of his matches. I've felt that way with Omega more than twice. Both overact, but Shawn has always feel much more real to me, it's like he overreacts because he's an extrovert guy, while Omega overreacts because he thinks he's putting on an Emmy performance that in his heads elevates the match and nothing else. HBK is a natural, Omega just... doesn't have the sauce.

Omega is a far better athlete, and his striking is superior, obviously, but only taking the execution and stiffness into account. When It comes to making every part of your offense matter and putting it over, Shawn's moveset is far richer than Omega's, who at the end of the day only has the Terminator dive, the V Triggers and the OWA as efective tools, and all the other stuff he does is just filler and/or it's not over.

Shawn's career is full of highlights, as soon as 1986 and as late as his retirement match (and the Saudi Arabia match is there, yes, but hey, at least I laughed a lot), with a lot in between. Aside from the Ibushi DDT match, I've never found anything Omega did pre-2016 being worth watching. He never looked like one of the best guys of his generation, and only got the chance of being portrayed as such once AJ Styles left New Japan. Props to him for taking the ball and running with it, but it's stil a run that pales in comparison to Shawn's whole career being always a very solid wrestler at least and one of the best ever at most.

[Kain]

Interesting one. I'm not all that big on Shawn in general and I'm a lot more fine with Omega than most people would give me credit for. But I still don't think that he's as great as a lot of people make him out to be.

Omega does some stuff I find very annoying. I think he might've dropped some of it. That's stuff like spraying the ice spray to his balls and his goofy facial expressions. I also think that he's one of the Guys that does long Matches for the sake of having long Matches and that many of those would've been better if they were a little shorter. That includes the ones against Okada, to be honest. 

The same could be said for Shawn, esp. after the Comeback. He developed a really strange way to oversell. I'm not sure how to accurately describe it. It's the instances when he gets hit and than staggers around in a totally over the top way before he falls and such crap. Always looks like he's going for some cheap pop or something. He always had  tendency to oversell, but before it was all still rather tame compared to the Comeback Years. So, I'm not big on that stuff. And as far as being goofy: I can really think of only one occassion for Shawn off the top of my hat. And DX doing that Match for the European Title made sense for them as they annoyed the Authority Figure (Slaughter). 

So, I much prefer Shawn from 1986 to 1998. Starting with the Midnight Rockers vs. Somers/Rose, the Rockers vs. the Rougeaus, Powers of Pain (insanely entertaining stuff), Hart Foundation and Brain Busters and his Singles Run vs. Diesel, Razor, Mankind, Undertaker and Austin. Strangely enough I don't care much for most of his Matches against Bret.

I think that re-watchability is the most important sign of a great Match. Oddly enough it's also an aspect most people don't talk about it. I've rewatched a lot of Pre-Comeback Shawn tons. Post-Comeback not so much. The same with Omega, to be honest. Once is enough. Re-visiting it I zone out pretty quickly. Which goes back to having Matches being long for the sake of being long, I guess. So, somewhat begrudgingly, I have to go with Shawn here.