Will Ospreay reflects on his Match of the Year candidate with Kenny Omega from WrestleKingdom 17.
On that night in January, the United Empire leader lost the IWGP United States Championship to The Cleaner in an epic brawl, one that had been heavily anticipated due to the amount of trash the two have been talking to one another over the last few years. During a recent interview with Fightful, Ospreay recalls the incredible reception the matchup received from analysts and fans alike. Despite the praise, he is still upset at how badly Omega beat him.
I even remember Dave messaging me being like, ‘That was special. You have no idea.’ Once again, Dave’s opinion is Dave’s opinion. But it’s only the next day when you digest everything and everyone was going nuts about it. There was no negative. It was just phenomenal. I’ll say it until the day I die, Kenny’s one of the best wrestlers in the world. He’s still a cunt, but the way his mind works, he has a complete different outlook on the matches. I think that’s where I need to put my mind into his just because it clearly works from what he’s doing. I know we get compared a lot, but we’re just two completely different guys. I’m proud of the match. I am. Trust me, I really am. I’m glad people enjoyed it. But it fucks me off that if you honestly watch it and really, really fucking watch it, it was 80% Kenny, 20% me. I got my ass handed to me, you know what I mean?
Ospreay adds that it really bothers him how much NJPW fans praised Omega’s return when he was the one holding down the fort, especially during the COVID era with zero fans.
It just bothers me. It’s one of those things where the whole thing—the press conference, I poured my heart out. Everyone was going, ‘Kenny’s back. The chosen one’s back. The prodigal son returns.’ I’m sitting there just being like, ‘Motherfucker. You just did three hour drives and did easy television matches no where near the caliber we were fucking doing.’ Even the AEW Championship matches were fucking incredible, but nothing compared to what all the New Japan boys were doing. We were pushing ourselves beyond all belief, man. It was that moment where it was a phenomenal match. Great. But I need to regain my pride on this, man. It can’t be 80/20. It needs to be 80/20 the other way around.
Elsewhere in the interview, Ospreay spoke about his love for NJPW and how loyal he’s remained to them over the years. However, he also stated that he would be a fool not to hear other companies out regarding his future. You can read his comments on that here.