Dave Meltzer Boldy Claims That Will Ospreay Is Better Than Kazuchika Okada

Yesterday, Jon Moxley defeated Juice Robinson to capture the IWGP United States Championship in his first match since leaving WWE in April 2019.

However, fans and wrestling critics alike were not talking about Moxley after the event, thanks to the amazing performance by Will Ospreay in the show’s main event. Ospreay defeated Shingo Takagi in the final of the 2019 Best of the Super Juniors to win the whole tournament in what was a sensational encounter.

https://twitter.com/WillOspreay/status/1136279687238316032

After the match, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer was fast to praise Ospreay for his performance, even likening it to Kenny Omega’s performance at the G1 in 2016, a tournament which the AEW star also won:

“This reminded me of the night that Omega won the G1 in 2016 where it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, he’s a great worker and we all know he’s a great worker and he has great matches,” but his promos. His promo on Monday night was so great and his promo tonight, he did two of them, he did the one after the match and the one backstage. The one after was great, in front of the fans, the one backstage was very human and also great. He’s a great worker, he’s maybe the best worker in the business right now, but there’s a difference between being a great worker and being a guy who can carry a promotion or a guy who’s like a superstar and today was the day where I think he stepped from one category into the other.”

Meltzer awarded the Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole match for the NXT Championship at NXT Takeover: New York five and a half stars. However, he said that this match, although different, was actually better:

“It killed everything on Takeover except Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano. I thought it was better than Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano, but it’s different. You’re talking different matches. This was much better storytelling and it was much better spectacular moves wise…”

Bryan Alvarez then praised Ospreay’s safer style, while Meltzer somewhat boldly claimed that the British wrestler is actually “better than Okada”:

Alvarez: “He was so great in this match, he was like the best in the world on this particular day and he didn’t do anything stupid in this match. He didn’t land on his head one time. He had all of his athleticism, he had great selling, I mean I don’t want to take anything away from Shingo, but I was just watching Ospreay this entire match, he was just out of this world. I mean it was an unbelievably fantastic match and it was largely, a very safe match compared to some of the things he’s done in the past.”

Meltzer: I would say that the Will Ospreay performance on today’s show would be among the best I have ever seen. I don’t think it’s close. I do not think it’s close. I didn’t think that we’d see a guy better than Okada for years, but he’s so athletic to go with everything else and I just hope his body doesn’t break down, of course we always said that but God he’s working so much smarter this year than last year.”

Thanks to WrestleZone for the transcription.

 

• Kazuchika Okada
• best of the super juniors
• NJPW
• Will Ospreay

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