[2023-01-04-NJPW-Wrestle Kingdom 17] Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Will Ospreay defends the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.

Not gonna lie, I wasn't feeling the first half (or so). It wasn't until Ospreay got busted open & Omega went into nasty murder-mode that I got into it, but oh boy did I love that shit. Kenneth was looking like a killer out there, and Ospreay was selling like a king. Cringe overselling is always a possibility with him, but here he was truly fantastic; selling just the right amount of big, you know? Moments like Kenny smashing Ospreay's head onto the table repeatedly, all the beautifully brutal V-Triggers, the Croyth's Wrath & the whole sequence leading to it w/ Will's amazing selling = *chef's kiss* beautiful goddamn stuff, beautiful goddamn stuff. There was stuff that I disliked too, though. I thought that all of Will's comeback bits towards the end were pretty bad & actively brought the match down. Especially that Hidden Blade after he had just ate the V-Trigger; wrist control stuff like that just feels like a parody at this point. It's still a great damn match, but yeah, it would've been on an entirely different level had I liked Will's work on the offense more. Or cared for the first half. Just says how otherworldly great Kenny brutalizing Ospreay was when it's still overall such a banger even with those factors. ***3/4

[paul sosnowski]

Meltzer 6.25*.   Boots 3.75......   Please let me know if you see a better match this year.   I can't wait

[ShittyLittleBoots]

16 hours ago, paul sosnowski said:

Meltzer 6.25*.   Boots 3.75......   Please let me know if you see a better match this year.   I can't wait

Love you daddy.

[Makai Club #1]

Well shit. They did it. Honestly, I thought it would be good-great but, like a lot of highly touted matches, wrestled like a match trying to be the greatest match unlike what this was, which was them going out there, following the story they were actually telling and wrestling the match and not the moment. There was no gratuitous let’s soak in the crowd moment, or something similarly manufactured. They simply tried to win. Both wrestled with intent, aggression and with follow through. Omega was aggressive from the off, hurting Ospreay quickly with his approach and spent the whole match following up on that with some of the most dangerous stunts he could think of. In classic Kenny fashion, there were some call backs to his previous matches, like the table spot with Okada, but in this case, they linked into the story of the match in a natural way. Omega put the table on the injured back of Ospreay, after he just crashed into the edge of the ring. Exactly the right thing for the right moment. Moreover, Ospreay proved that his best self is him selling for his opponent and working from beneath. His selling was great at times, playing into the blood extremely well and the effect it should have on you, while still providing some excellent offence when he could. This match was Omega heavy however, but luckily, this was the best Kenny Omega performance since 2018. I’ve never been in love with Omega’s work during his AEW. He was usually good but rarely great and NEVER this good. And he showed up big time in this match. This was nothing short of amazing. A quality dome match. ****1/2

 

[corwo]

There’s no extended feeling-out process or wasteful mat work that ultimately leads nowhere, so this immediately has more going for it than 99% of Ospreay matches. Ospreay was alright here and probably delivered one of his better performances in recent memory, but Omega was an absolute tour de force. His explosive delivery of offense and Ospreay’s propensity for taking big bumps created a natural dynamic.

Of course, being that this is Ospreay vs. Omega, some of their worst tendencies rear their ugly heads. Omega can’t help himself, making a goofy face after delivering a vicious double stomp through a table placed on Ospreay’s back. He’d later make another face after hitting the Terminator dive. What a zany guy, that Kenny. Ospreay’s also not the most naturally likable wrestler in the world for a multitude of reasons. The trope of Ospreay landing on his feet out of a top-rope maneuver, in this case, a Dragon Suplex, is played-out and more often than not is done as a checklist moment rather than being a meaningful part of the match.

Still, what they get right here, they get right. For a big-move-laden epic, the action is reasonably paced. Ospreay gets busted open by a top-rope DDT, adding a little more natural drama than these two are typically prone to. Omega followed that up by bashing Ospreay’s head into the shattered bits of the table, which was shockingly violent for a big, dumb, self-conscious epic.

The third act is where they started to lose me. Omega began to mutter to himself, which is the kind of exaggerated acting I feared from this match-up. The finisher spam got to be a bit much, as did the wrist-control spot, which screamed “I want to emulate Okada/Tanahashi but I don’t understand why that moment worked for them.” Omega eventually won with the One-Winged Angel.

Omega’s aggression and the general spectacle of it all were positives. However, I have complicated feelings about this match. The expected heavy-handedness was present, and I don’t think anyone who doesn’t like Ospreay or Omega already will be swayed by this match. They also got a lot right in terms of the structure. A very good match as a whole, but some of Ospreay and Omega’s less–than-desirable mannerisms cropped up at times and prevented it from reaching the next level.