Top AEW Star Explains What Separates Him From Will Ospreay

NJPW

 

At NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17, the wrestling world will finally see the long awaited showdown between AEW star Kenny Omega and IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay.

The two men have traded barbs back and forth via interviews and social media for the past few years since Omega left New Japan for All Elite Wrestling.

Speaking with NJPW, Omega explained what he believes separates him from his Wrestle Kingdom 17 opponent. He said:

“What separates Kenny Omega from anybody? It’s a ‘je ne sais quoi’, I can’t even put it into my own words what it is that makes me so much different to anybody else.”

“I think what it is though is that I’m not ever trying to emulate anybody. I’m not trying to be the next anybody, I’m trying to be the first me.”

Feeling that Ospreay was given a position that he wasn’t ready for, Kenny stated:

“I feel like Will Ospreay has been kinda shoehorned into a, an area, into a position where he feels like he needs to be me.”

“He feels like he needs to make the merchandise sales like I did. He feels like he needs to sell tickets like I did, he feels like he needs to move sponsorships like I did, to break out worldwide, like I did.”

“He could never do it, so he went about it in a different way, and it’s the only way he knew how, by doing death defying stunts on very small scale independent wrestling shows,”

“On the grand scale, that doesn’t help anybody. It doesn’t help you, Will, it doesn’t help New Japan, it doesn’t help the world of professional wrestling.”

Omega continued on that Ospreay’s work on the independent scene is not helping New Japan or wrestling, saying:

“All it helps is your friends in the UK, that run small operations with small crowds and wrestlers that aren’t ready to make the big time.”

“Sure, it’s great for them, I am… look, I’ve wrestled for these guys too, I’m happy for them too. So, in a way I’m, I’m proud of you, Will. Proud of your accomplishments, proud of what you’ve done.”

Stating that he feels Will is just missing that star power that he delivered to NJPW, Omega said:

“We can confuse that a little bit, about you being a nice guy and not forgetting where you came from, but that’s not what it is. That was you,”

“Will, realizing that on the big stage, you lack something that I have- raw star power. A body, chiseled from granite.”

Omega concluded by stating that Ospreay’s inability to speak Japanese also hurts his ability to be the top star NJPW needs, saying:

“The ability to talk to people around the world, not just the people in North America, not just to the UK, but to your crowd in Japan.”

“Something you’ve never done, something that you’ll never do, and if it weren’t for Google translate, it would be something that none of you foreigners will ever do, and you don’t feel any shame for that do you?”

“You’ll own that technology and you’ll let somebody else do all that for you every step of the way. What makes us so different Will? I carved my own path through my own hard work.”

“You took the easy way out, and you always leant on other people to bail you out when you couldn’t make a mark.”

As previously reported, Kenny Omega also pointed out Ospreay’s mind is the reason he fails as a performer for NJPW.

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• Wrestle Kingdom 17
• NJPW
• Will Ospreay
• Kenny Omega

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