Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay are being compared to Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat, so let’s put both rivalries head-to-head. Flair and Steamboat own the history, but Omega and Ospreay just closed AEW All In 2026 on a stage their legendary predecessors never reached against each other.
One rivalry has nearly four decades of staying power. The other just packed Wembley Stadium with 41,102 fans and helped pull a gate near $6 million. The debate exploded after Dave Meltzer argued that Omega and Ospreay’s AEW World Championship match carried more emotion than anything he ever saw from Flair and Steamboat.
“I saw countless Flair-Steamboat matches. Seriously, Ospreay vs. Omega had more emotion than any Flair-Steamboat match, and Flair-Steamboat was state of the art from 1977 to 1989.”
Flair wasn’t letting that one go. He fired back on X, gave Omega and Ospreay their respect and then told everyone to pump the brakes.
“No one has more respect for Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay than me! But to compare them to Steamboat and I is like comparing the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean!”
Flair’s argument came down to volume. He and Steamboat didn’t build their reputation with a handful of major matches. They wrestled each other across different cities, promotions and buildings for years. They knew each other inside out and still found ways to keep the matches fresh. Flair told Omega and Ospreay to come back when they had done that kind of work.
“When they have a great match 300 times a year and 200 hour broadways, get back to me!”
Then Flair went for the throat. He told Omega and Ospreay that being number two wasn’t a bad thing and challenged them to see whether anyone still cares about their matches 37 years from now.
“Until then, there is no problem with being number two. You are great young talent, but let’s get serious, kids! You should only hope that you have people talking about your matches 37 years later! Wooooo!”
When it comes to longevity, Flair has a point. Flair and Steamboat’s famous trilogy happened in 1989, and fans are still tearing those matches apart move by move. Omega and Ospreay can’t prove their work will have the same staying power until the years pass.
But the second this comparison turns to attendance, Flair’s argument takes a beating. The 1989 trilogy started at Chi-Town Rumble in front of 8,000 fans. Their Clash of the Champions VI rematch drew 5,300. WrestleWar ’89 brought in another 5,200. That is 18,500 fans across all three events combined.
Omega and Ospreay headlined All In 2026 in front of 41,102 fans who passed through Wembley Stadium’s turnstiles. WrestleTix estimated that 46,987 tickets were distributed for the event. Do the math.
The event Omega and Ospreay headlined put 22,602 more fans inside the building than Flair and Steamboat’s entire 1989 trilogy combined. Using the estimated ticket-distribution figure, All In moved 28,487 more tickets than the combined attendance for those three Flair-Steamboat events. One night at Wembley more than doubled the total crowd from all three matches in the 1989 trilogy.
All In’s actual attendance was more than five times the Chi-Town Rumble crowd. It was nearly eight times larger than the crowds at Clash of the Champions VI and WrestleWar ’89. Flair and Steamboat eventually wrestled in front of a bigger audience at Spring Stampede 1994, which drew 12,200 fans. Even that was less than one-third of the crowd that entered Wembley for Omega and Ospreay.
Then there’s the money. Tony Khan said All In 2026 was approaching a $6 million gate. There is no dependable gate figure available for every Flair-Steamboat match, so there is no clean dollar-for-dollar comparison. Still, a gate near $6 million puts Omega and Ospreay’s biggest stage in a completely different financial universe.
Omega and Ospreay didn’t sell every ticket by themselves. All In had a loaded card featuring several major matches and stars. Their AEW World Championship fight still received top billing and closed AEW’s biggest show of the year.
That is where the comparison lands. Flair and Steamboat win on volume and longevity. They wrestled more matches, built a deeper history and proved their work could survive for decades. Omega and Ospreay win on scale. They headlined a stadium event with 41,102 fans in attendance and an estimated 46,987 tickets distributed. The event they closed also generated a gate near $6 million.
Flair and Steamboat built the deeper rivalry. Omega and Ospreay reached the bigger stage. Flair can tell them to “get serious,” but the Wembley numbers are serious. He owns the history argument, but he can’t wave away an event that more than doubled the combined attendance for his celebrated 1989 trilogy with Steamboat.
| Comparison | Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat | Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay |
|---|---|---|
| Featured comparison | Famous 1989 trilogy | AEW All In 2026 |
| Chi-Town Rumble attendance | 8,000 | — |
| Clash of the Champions VI attendance | 5,300 | — |
| WrestleWar ’89 attendance | 5,200 | — |
| Combined reported attendance | 18,500 across three events | 41,102 at one event |
| Estimated/reported ticket total | 18,500 | 46,987 distributed |
| Difference using actual All In attendance | — | 22,602 more fans |
| Difference using All In ticket distribution | — | 28,487 more tickets |
| Largest documented major-event crowd against each other | 12,200 at Spring Stampede 1994 | 41,102 at All In 2026 |
| Gate | No dependable comparable figure available | Approximately $6 million |
| Biggest advantage | Volume and longevity | Crowd size and commercial scale |
What do you think? Does the bigger Wembley crowd put Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay on Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat’s level, or do Flair and Steamboat’s volume and longevity still win the argument? Sound off in the comments and leave your feedback below.
