“I’m just glad the match got to go off without a hitch. I didn’t lose via injury or or something that was beyond my control. I’m glad I was able to go out, give my all, and and do the best that I could.”

Omega commented on “passing the torch” to Ospreay…

“You can tell how hungry he is. He has his house still in the UK, but he still wants to be on every single show. Even if he had a match the next day, the biggest match of his career at Wembley, he was still grinding it out on a local indie the day before.

The post Kenny Omega addresses his loss to Will Ospreay at AEW All In: London 2026 appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Meltzer wrote that it was “probably the second-best match” he ever watched. He also stated that Omega “put on one of the most incredible performances in a pro wrestling ring in his part in setting the stage for as perfect a coronation of a world title reign as you probably could get in modern wrestling.”

Meltzer called Ospreay vs. Omega an “all-time classic” that was “the best complete match presentation in wrestling history.”

The post Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay rated 6.5 stars by longtime wrestling analyst Dave Meltzer appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Can’t we just agree that each match was great for their era?

Geesh.

For one, let’s disqualify a few opinions first… Ric Flair was in the actual match with Ricky Steamboat, so obviously, he’s biased. Dave Meltzer is totally IN THE BAG for All Elite Wrestling and anyone who works for New Japan, so obviously, he’s very biased. One is protecting his legacy and the other is protecting his hidden ties to AEW.

But the rest of you fighting in the trenches… Who cares? Who cares which match is better? What are you trying to prove with online fights?!?

Steamboat vs. Flair happened in 1989, while Ospreay vs. Omega happened in 2026… That’s a 37 year difference, and that’s older than one of the wrestlers discussed (Will Ospreay is 33, born in 1993).

It’s like the same idiotic argument of which athlete from this era of MLB, NBA, or NFL is better, despite being decades apart or never having played each other. Like the Michael Jordan vs. Lebron James debate. Who cares? Just admire that both human beings were very talented and won multiple titles each. Sure, they did it different ways, but the leagues conditions for each era provides context.

Or even worse, the old Joe Montana vs. Tom Brady debate. Brady had to get 4 titles to even be included in the debate, but even that was enough. Tom getting 7 Super Bowl titles still isn’t enough in this lame debate. Who cares? Both were great in their era and both will be Hall of Famers when Tom gets in soon.

Then you have “any player today” versus Babe Ruth debate, as if Babe Ruth wouldn’t dominate with late 20th century or early 21st century medicine, performance enhancers, and nutrition if he played today.

Notice how I didn’t mention NHL… Nobody disputes Wayne Gretzky as the G.O.A.T there… I painfully admit that as a diehard Pittsburgh Penguins and Mario Lemieux fan.

But this debate that everyone is having is STUPID, especially since Ospreay vs. Omega from AEW All In 2026 JUST HAPPENED. Why can’t we let the damn paint dry before we see it’s long-term impact? Ospreay/Omega happened 5 days ago, while Flair and Steamboat happened 37 years ago.

What wrestling fans need to realize that Flair vs. Steamboat was through 1989 was an actual exception to what pro wrestling was back then. You didn’t see hyper-athletic matches like that back then because most of the fanbase believed that pro wrestling was real and wrestlers could do more with psychology or gesturing with fans during the match. With the fans emotionally invested already, they didn’t have to perform high risk moves or show extreme athleticism. Thus, why wrestlers could actually perform over 300 times per year back then because they just had to work the crowds who already believed what they were seeing was real. This is why Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat at Wrestlemania 3 was so unique for its time and then why Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair stood out in 1989. Those matches were complete outliers for their athleticism in comparison to other matches back then.

Fast forward to 2026. 37 years later, wrestlers are influenced by what Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Randy Savage, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, and a metric ton of cruiserweight wrestlers and international wrestlers have put on for decades. Because kayfabe was shattered, wrestlers since the late 1980s had to TRY HARDER with their matches to keep the crowds interested. Hence why you saw workrate increasing by the year through what we see now with 2026. Sadly, along the way, too, we had ECW to influence everybody flying through tables or jumping off ladders.

Flair vs. Steamboat (specifically the WrestleWar 89 match) was the best match that we’ve ever seen until 1997 when Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin happened at Wrestlemania 13. THINK ABOUT THAT, folks… It took 8 freakin’ years for another epic 5-star match the equivalent of Flair vs. Steamboat to happen.

But then, through the late 1990s, guys like Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Rey Mysterio, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, Dean Malenko, Brian Pillman, and many other international wrestlers arrived to really speed up the tempo of the matches. Main eventers like the Rock, Austin, Undertaker, John Cena, Batista, and Brock Lesnar actually adjusted their own styles to match the faster paced style. With time, wrestling schedules were reduced from 300+ nights pear year to around 150, if that. Wrestlers are working less, so thus they put more effort into the bigger televised matches than ever.

Again, wrestlers of today HAVE TO because putting their bodies on the line is the only way to keep the fans interested because fans know everything is scripted.

Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair stood out because there were no other matches like it, and nothing close to it until the late 1990s.

With Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega, we’ve seen many high impact, high energy, and high risk matches like it. Hell, there are other Omega vs. Ospeay matches that are equally as good as what you just saw at All In 2026. Both Omega and Ospreay have had many great matches with other opponents, notably Okada in the past or with other various opponents in New Japan. AEW often has 10-15 matches on their Pay Per Views and they are full of high energy and high impact matches that are receiving higher star ratings from fans and critics alike. Let’s not discount WWE… Their workrate is way up, as even Dave Meltzer had to give Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk at Wrestlemania 42 a 5-star rating.

The problem with Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega is that it’s in a much more crowded field, and thus can be forgotten in a short while. If you were a wrestling fan since the 1980s, you remembered 1989 with those 3 televised Steamboat vs. Flair matches and you never forgot about them. Then, it took about 8 years for any match to even be the equivalent of quality to that match.

Then I’m seeing stuff like “Ospreay vs. Omega drew over 40,000, which was higher than anything drawing in 1989 for WCW”. Yeah, well, WCW had more eyeballs watching their shows back then and that Clash of the Champions event in New Orleans drew poorly because it was given away for free on television. There’s a bigger population now, and plus for All In, they had a hometown kid winning the AEW Title. WWE drew strongly in Wembley with SummerSlam 1992 because British Bulldog was going for the Intercontinental Title.

Y’all are just in a worthless pissing match… This is apples and oranges. Flair vs. Steamboat was quality in an era of quantity of matches that didn’t require major athletic effort because fans were emotionally involved. Now, however, there’s too much quantity of quality matches and wrestlers have to work harder to earn fans’ attention.

Just be happy with the abundance of great matches today, but thank building blocks like Flair vs. Steamboat that helped influence what you’re seeing now.

STOP WASTING YOUR TIME arguing this crap online. It’s not good for your health and speaking through your fingers is worthless versus actually talking to and conversing with real human beings in-person.

Both Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat and Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega were great for their eras and years… Very simple premise to agree on.

That said, I’ve watched both matches and I’ll hand it to Flair vs. Steamboat. Why? Because Flair and Steamboat didn’t have to nearly injure themselves with higher risk moves than what Kenny and Will had to do. I don’t know how Kenny Omega’s neck isn’t badly injured after that match, while I believe that Steamboat and Flair were chilling comfortably after their matches in 1989.

Plus, again, Flair vs. Steamboat were the diamond in the rough back then… Now, we’re creating too many artificial diamonds that are drowning out the quality.

Gotta try harder to impress fans when you flush kayfabe down the toilet…

Mr. Tito Column Archive @ NoDQ

The post MR. TITO: Assessing the STUPIDITY of the Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay and Ric Flair vs. Ricky Steamboat Match Comparison Debate appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

So yeah I thoroughly enjoyed All In. I never got around to watching NXT Heatwave or the Triple A show. There was some news coming out of that double shot over the weekend. According to Dave Meltzer on the Wrestling Observer , the WWE essentially underestimated Triple A thinking NXT would be the bigger show of the two. All I can think of that is the word stupid

Of course Triple A was going to be seen as the bigger show. The WWE is vastly underestimating the drawing power of Lucha Libre in the United States. Triple A should be seen as much more than a pawn for the WWE. Oh we need to leech off AEW again…let’s throw a Triple A show up against it. At least Triplemania 34 (which is in a couple of weeks) will get time to shine on it’s own with a huge Friday night show on September 11th in Las Vegas and night two in Mexico City on September 13th. I’m honestly more interested in the second night because that is the night we will see Dominik Mysterio defend the Triple A MEGA Championship against El Grande Americano. Americano has become almost a folk hero in Mexico so it has to be almost a lock that he would win the title.

But I want to go back to AEW today because I honestly haven’t written enough about them in a while. As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed All In: London. The match everyone is talking about is of course Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega. I loved everything about this match from the pre match introduction narrated by Will’s own mother and then set to “Baba O’Reily” by The Who. It just was everything I love about a “pure sports build” in pro wrestling. But as much as I loved the match, I’m not going to say something crazy and be like “Oh it was the best match ever”. Surely a match of the year candidate regardless of the promotion.

Over on twitter/X, someone randomly tweeted at Darius Rucker (country singer/formerly of Hootie & The Blowfish) that Omega vs. Ospreay was the greatest match of all time. Darius responded simply by saying “You obviously never saw Flair vs. Steamboat”. Now, it’s well known that Rucker is a Flair fanboy. I mean hell, he owns I believe two of Flair’s actual robes. But he wasn’t wrong to state that if you think Omega vs. Ospreay was great, you’ve never seen Flair vs. Steamboat. Enter Dave Meltzer into the discussion.

“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.”

I like Dave, I really do. But Ospreay vs. Omega did not have more emotion than ANY Flair-Steamboat match. Like I said it was a really good match, but if you’re comparing it to Flair and Steamboat…that is a bridge too far. Of course it didn’t take too long for Ric Flair to chime in about it over on Twitter and it’s a doozy from Ol’ Nat’ch.

“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! When they have a great match 300 times a year and 200-hour broadways, get back to me! 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!”

Now, I sense a tad bit exaggerating from Ric because I’m pretty sure he and Steamboat did not wrestle each other 300 times a year. The 200 hour long broadways is probably true. But that’s over a span of decades. I honestly believe that Kenny’s matches with Okada will be discussed in the same vein as Flair and Steamboat down the line. Those were epic matches that should be talked about decades to come. But this match with Omega and Ospreay, while pretty damn good…it was not a Flair vs. Steamboat encounter.

In the end like I said, it might be a match of the year. Hell, I’ll even say it could be a top ten match of the decade. But I just don’t see people talking about this match like a Flair/Steamboat match. Right now the all time series between Kenny and Will is tied at two wins apiece. Will said on Dynamite he’s happy with being equal with Kenny Omega. But if he ever wants to go again…game on. I do hope that fifth and probable final match between Omega and Ospreay does happen. Now if that match happens, that will probably have a lot of emotion to it because it’s pretty clear right now Kenny Omega is on the last lap of his career. Does Omega go out with a win or does he fall just short one last time? That’s a story right there AEW could do.

On that note I am done for this week. I apologize for any delay with my column. The world of wrestling moves faster than I can type sometimes. As always you can leave feedback down below, over on Twitter or email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com

The post The Phantom Rant: Was Omega vs. Ospreay better than Flair vs. Steamboat? appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

“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!

No One Has More Respect For @KennyOmegamanX And @WillOspreay Than Me! But To Compare Them To Steamboat And I Is Like Comparing The Mississippi River To The Pacific Ocean! When They Have A Great Match 300 Times A Year And 200 Hour Broadways, Get Back To Me! Until Then, There Is No… pic.twitter.com/UFqcgPg8Zs

— Ric Flair® (@RicFlairNatrBoy) September 2, 2026

The post Ric Flair on Omega vs. Ospreay: “When they have a great match 300 times a year and 200-hour broadways, get back to me” appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

“I didn’t like the match at all, and I know people are going to b*tch, ‘Bischoff’s such a hater.’ Look, for those who like the AEW style of wrestling, it was fine. You got what you wanted. You got what you paid for, and it met or exceeded your expectations, and I’m happy for you.

The post Eric Bischoff didn’t like Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Omega: “It was like watching a Nasty Boys match” appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

AEW World Champion Omega issued the following response…

“What the f*ck is wrong with you? It isn’t hard to try having some class.

A dear friend battles back from a career threatening injury, is no doubt still fighting pain today, and is somehow mocked and compared to a dude that was murdered. I get that a joke is a joke but these things should really be kept separate in my opinion.”

A dear friend battles back from a career threatening injury, is no doubt still fighting pain today, and is somehow mocked and compared to a dude that was murdered.

I get that a joke is a joke but these things should really be kept separate in my opinion.

— Kenny Omega (@KennyOmegamanX) July 17, 2026

The post Kenny Omega calls out person that compares Will Ospreay to the late political activist Charlie Kirk appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

Fightful noted the following about the title change…

“There was a talking point that AEW did their title change on TV to ‘steal thunder’ from CM Punk’s title win. It was repeatedly reiterated to Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select that this wasn’t the case, and Kenny Omega winning the AEW Championship from MJF had been planned for months. The plan for the match on AEW TV was set before Sami Zayn’s WWE Championship win even happened.”

It was previously reported that the original plan was for the match to take place at the AEW Redemption PPV in Montreal. However, it’s believed that MJF pushed to have the match take place on television, and AEW President Tony Khan approved it.

There was a talking point that AEW did their title change on TV to "steal thunder" from CM Punk's title win.

It was repeatedly reiterated to @SeanRossSapp of @FightfulSelect that this wasn't the case, and Kenny Omega winning the AEW Championship from MJF had been planned for… pic.twitter.com/RHdtUJbk8B

— Fightful Wrestling (@Fightful) July 12, 2026

The post News regarding Kenny Omega’s AEW World Title win taking place right after CM Punk captured the WWE Title appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

So of course leave it to the WWE to telegraph Sami losing on RAW Monday night. At first they set up Cody Rhodes getting his rematch after he beat Jey Uso on Smackdown on Friday night. All weekend all we could think of was “Poor Sami”. Cody was gonna get his damn title back because of course he had to. Cody Rhodes is almost in late 2000’s John Cena mode at this point where he overcomes the odds and wins back the title. Well, luckily that didn’t happen Monday night on RAW. The WWE took a hard left at the proverbial fork in the road and decided not to put the belt back on Cody as Gunther beat him up at the start of the show and Cody ended up not being “medically cleared”.

I thought Sami Zayn got a reprieve. But no, Adam Pearce was all “I promised a championship match here tonight and that’s what they’re gonna get”. Here’s where it got stupid in my view. Around the mid point of the show, Pearce was all “I can’t find anyone to face Sami”. You mean you couldn’t find one guy in the locker room who wanted a World title match? This of course led to Nick Aldis swooping in to say he found someone and they are ready. Cut to later in the night and as Sami is in the ring, the crowd has been chanting a certain someone’s name all night since they were in his hometown. The music hits and of course it’s CM Punk.

Well that’s just great. Sami Zayn was doomed. Now don’t get me wrong, the match was pretty good. It’s just the wrong guy won. Sami Zayn did not deserve to be a short run transitional champion. Now apparently according to the very reliable Wrestle Votes over on Twitter, NBC Universal has wanted Punk on Smackdown for a while now. They view him as a premier star. Well, duh…no kidding he’s a premier star. But just because he’s a top guy doesn’t mean he needs the title belt right off the bat.

I’ve seen criticism of Sami’s loss on twitter and elsewhere and it makes sense. How come Sami had to defend his title right off the bat? Rhea Ripley has been out over a month and she hasn’t had to vacate the title. Liv Morgan hasn’t defended her title at all (at least on tv…but house shows don’t count). Point is Sami Zayn was screwed over royally.

I think the WWE is blowing a golden opportunity here mostly because of their stupid perceptions. The big one that they have is that Sami Zayn is not a money player. That is a load of you know what like you wouldn’t believe. I’m thinking back to 1994 when the WWF at the time made a similar mistake. Come back with me to Survivor Series 1994 where Mr. Bob Backlund defeated Bret “The Hitman” Hart to become the new WWF World Champion. Now of course me back then, I didn’t have the advantage of seeing things in hindsight. I’ll admit when I was at Madison Square Garden three days later for that fateful night of Backlund vs. Diesel, I was rooting for the big man to win.

In hindsight though a lot of people would argue the WWF made a terrible decision to squash Backlund in eight seconds and give the belt to Big Daddy Cool. It’s not that Diesel didn’t deserve to be champion. It’s that Mr. Bob Backlund deserved better than three days as champion. Of course his moral heel persona was way ahead of it’s time for 1994 into 1995. We’re in the same situation with Sami Zayn now having lost the title. And knowing the WWE, they will push Sami Zayn to the backside because “he’s not a money player”. So we’re going to get Punk vs. Cody…because that’s been the plan all along.

Maybe Gunther vs. Cody will delay that match for like a week, but it’s clear it’s the plan and it takes something monumental to get the WWE to pivot from one of their plans. As I’ve said in the past, I have nothing against. Cody. I just want to see something different for once. Sami Zayn was that something different. He didn’t need a super long reign. He could have held the title till Summerslam and they could have still had Punk win then.

Ah well we shall see what happens on Smackdown going forth since it’s going to be CM Punk’s show. Me personally I would keep Punk and Zayn feuding. Shift Cody to face Gunther for a while.

On the otherside of the wrestling, Kenny Omega is the AEW Champion once again having defeated MJF on Dynamite. I thought it was a pretty good match. AEW is going to go full tilt into promoting Omega vs. Osprey at All In: London at Wembley Stadium. MJF vs. Osprey would have been better from a story standpoint, but it’s AEW. We all know they care more about the wrestling action over story telling. But AEW backed themselves into a corner with the stip that Omega had to win or he would never get another World title shot in AEW again. They did that to Adam Page and he hasn’t been seen since. But Omega vs. Osprey should be an amazing match when it happens next month.

On that note I am done for this week. I wish Sami Zayn was still champion, but it wasn’t to be.

As always you can leave me feedback down below, on Twitter or email me at phantomlordnyc@gmail.com

The post The Phantom Rant: Sami Zayn Deserved Much Better appeared first on NoDQ.com: WWE and AEW Coverage.

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