Kenny Omega being nowhere to be found on the final AEW Dynamite before All In always stood out. With Omega and Will Ospreay days away from fighting for the AEW World Championship at Wembley, Ospreay was instead left to handle the final push on his own.
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez has now revealed what he was told happened behind the scenes that night in Glasgow. According to a source he described as “very good,” something happened before Dynamite went on the air that caused AEW to rethink putting Omega on the show.
“I was told that this is what happened. Do you remember on that Dynamite Kenny Omega wasn’t on the show? I was told by one person, who was a very good source. This person said the reason that Kenny was not on the show was because before the show in Scotland, and Ospreay has confirmed this, they did a thing: ‘Who do you want to see? Do you want Kenny or Ospreay to win?’”
The answer apparently wasn’t what AEW wanted to hear. According to Alvarez, the Glasgow crowd cheered Omega while Ospreay was booed. With Wembley right around the corner, AEW reportedly decided it didn’t want to risk that same reaction happening when the cameras were rolling.
“I was told they cheered Kenny and Ospreay got booed. They made the decision like, ‘I don’t think we should put him on the show. We don’t want that reaction on TV.’ So as a result, Ospreay went out and did a solo promo.”
That left Will Ospreay with the ring to himself rather than standing across from the man he was about to challenge at All In.
“The impression I was given was that reaction before the show was why they didn’t put Kenny Omega on the show. They got cold feet about the idea of, ‘Do we want to have Kenny Omega go out there and have Kenny cheered and Ospreay booed right before Wembley?’”
Ospreay has already confirmed that the pre-show reaction happened, even if he didn’t connect it to Omega’s absence. During an appearance on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Ospreay recalled being backstage when AEW was asking the Glasgow crowd for reactions to different wrestlers. When his name came up, he heard something he wasn’t expecting.
“And then they said, ‘Ospreay?’, and I’m not even joking, I heard boos. I had a genuine moment backstage, I looked at Brainbuster, who’s the photographer, because he was getting some candid photos, and I heard that, and there was a genuine moment of, like, ‘Are they gonna boo me?’”
Ospreay was worried enough that he started preparing to change direction if the live crowd rejected him. He even considered leaning into being the bad guy rather than fighting against the reaction.
“Just before my music, I just, ‘Please don’t boo, please don’t boo’, because I genuinely think I would have just switched it and I probably would have leant more bad guy. But then, thankfully, thankfully they cheered, and we ended up riff-raffing between us.”
Ospreay ultimately got the reception he wanted once Dynamite went live. A few days later, he defeated Omega at Wembley to become AEW World Champion. The Glasgow crowd never got the chance to choose between them again on television. If Alvarez’s source is correct, AEW heard that choice once before the cameras started and decided there was no reason to tempt fate a second time.
Do you think AEW made the right decision keeping Kenny Omega off the show after hearing the Glasgow crowd’s reaction? Let us know in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
