Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega had one of the biggest matches of their careers waiting for them at Wembley Stadium, and parts of it were still changing only a couple of matches before they walked through the curtain.
While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Ospreay looked back on defeating Omega for the AEW World Championship at All In. He admitted that he initially went into the match with more emotions than actual ideas, knowing how he wanted everything to feel without necessarily knowing how to turn those feelings into a wrestling match. Things started clicking once he and Omega finally sat down together.
“Yeah. Yeah. Well, like, so much, man. Like, it was just wild just because, um, going into it, I had really no ideas. Like, I had feelings that I wanted to feel, but I didn’t know how to relay that in terms of the match storytelling. It was only when me and Kenny sat down and started talking about stuff, and then we just came together and it was just like idea flow and idea flow.”
Then All In actually started. Only hours before Ospreay and Omega were supposed to wrestle, they realized other matches on the card had already used some of the things they were planning. Suddenly, pieces of a Wembley main event they had spent time putting together needed to change.
“And honestly, I’d love to be able to tell you guys, like, when the match was hours from going on and we found out that there were some people that did stuff that we wanted to do in our match. So then it put us under even more pressure to try and change things around and try and fit it in within our story.”
Ospreay made it clear he isn’t blaming anybody for stepping on their ideas. With so many wrestlers spread throughout a stadium, keeping track of everything everybody planned to do wasn’t exactly easy. More importantly, he thinks what came out of the problem was actually better than what they originally had. The final version wasn’t completely locked in until roughly two or three matches before their own.
“And that was like, it’s no one’s fault. Like, things happen. Like, I don’t blame anyone in that situation, but it was just, as frustrating as it was, what we came up with, what our Plan B was, was way, way, way better. So, like, I was dead happy with that. Kind of? No. Like, it was like maybe two or three matches before. So, like, we still had time on our hands, but I think a lot of it was just because we were putting so much pressure on ourselves and we were just worried.”
Usually, wrestlers communicate throughout a show to avoid repeating important spots. Ospreay said Wembley made that considerably harder simply because of the size of the building and how spread out everyone was.
“’Cause obviously when you do these type of shows, you’re always communicating with the other wrestlers. But because it was a stadium, it was so hard to have that kind of communication with everybody. So, like, naturally things will happen, and we just had faith that nothing else was gonna happen that would’ve stepped on our toes.”
Nothing else did, and Ospreay still sounds amazed by what he and Omega managed to put together under that pressure.
“And thankfully no one did. But man, it was just what we was able to come up with and what we was able to do. Like, it was just, I couldn’t have done that with anybody.”
Ospreay later revealed exactly what they were calling “Plan B,” and it ended up becoming one of the most important sequences of the entire match. Their original idea had been used elsewhere on the card, so Omega and Ospreay replaced it with something considerably more significant: Omega would hit the One-Winged Angel, Ospreay would kick out at one, Ospreay would answer with the Stormbreaker, Omega would kick out at one, and then they would head into the finish.
“Yeah, um, it was, uh, we labeled it Plan B because our Plan A got ruined ’cause somebody had done it in their match. So the Plan B was One-Winged Angel, one kickout, Stormbreaker, one kickout, then finish.”
For Ospreay, kicking out of the One-Winged Angel wasn’t simply another dramatic near fall. Omega had spent 14 years protecting the move, and Ospreay understood exactly what he was being trusted with.
“I was proud of that one. But, like, being honest, the thing that I’m… this will never leave me ever. Kenny allowing me to kick out of the One-Winged Angel, the significance and the importance behind that move cannot be understated.”
Ospreay looked at all the major names Omega has worked with over the years and couldn’t believe that moment was ultimately saved for him.
“He’s protected that move for 14 years. The only person to ever kick out of it was Ibushi, who was his longtime tag partner. The fact that he allowed me… and you think about the historical feud that he’s had, Okada, Tanahashi, Ibushi, Hangman, and he saved it for me. That’s like one of the biggest honors and the biggest accomplishments I think I’ve ever been given as a performer, as a wrestler.”
As reported earlier, AEW was already obsessing over the clock backstage that night. It was noted that talent had been strongly warned during rehearsals not to run long and take time away from Omega and Ospreay’s main event.
So Omega and Ospreay had their time protected, but some of their actual ideas weren’t. That forced them to improvise only a few matches before going on, and the replacement ended up giving Ospreay a moment involving the One-Winged Angel that he says will stay with him forever.
Do you think Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega’s Plan B ended up being better than whatever they originally had planned for the All In main event? 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.
