We’re almost within the month of March which suggests the primary AEW pay-per-view of the yr is true across the corner. If All In is AEW’s equivalent of WWE WrestleMania, then Revolution can arguably be seen as AEW’s version of SummerSlam in that it is generally billed because the second biggest event of the yr for the corporate, and at all times has some standout moments.
The 2024 Revolution event was particularly noteworthy for quite a few reasons. The show was built around Sting’s final match where he and Darby Allin, with the assistance of some family and friends, defeated The Young Bucks to send “The Icon” out on a high note. Eddie Kingston proved that his Continental Classic victory over Bryan Danielson wasn’t a fluke by getting one other victory over the “American Dragon,” forcing Danielson to shake his hand after the match was done, and the story of Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page took one other turn as their three-way match with Samoa Joe ended with the “Samoan Submission Machine” retaining his AEW World Championship.
In amongst all of that was what we will likely be specializing in today, the official arrival of Will Ospreay to the AEW roster. AEW fans already knew who Ospreay was because of his various appearances for the corporate through the corporate’s working relationship with Latest Japan Pro Wrestling, but when his NJPW contract expired in February 2024, he packed up his things and took his talents stateside and have become an official member of All Elite Wrestling. Ospreay wanted an enormous coming out party at Revolution for the primary match of his latest journey, and with him being a member of The Don Callis Family, “The Invisible Hand” had an idea.
To actually see if Ospreay was able to hanging with the very best that AEW had to supply, Callis decided to pit two of his own relations against one another and made Konosuke Takeshita Ospreay’s first opponent. Takeshita had beaten Kenny Omega twice in a single week in 2023 and had risen through the ranks for the reason that turn of the brand new yr, meaning that a victory over Ospreay would do wonders for him in his quest for gold in AEW.
With Revolution 2026 just over two weeks away, we here at Wrestling Inc. will likely be looking back at a few of the very best matches and moments from the show’s past, and this one most actually deserves to have some praise showered on it. So let’s roll back the clock by two years and shine a highlight on Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita from AEW Revolution 2024!
A Show Stealer
As mentioned earlier, long-time AEW fans had already witnessed among the things Will Ospreay could do, with lots of those fans also following the insane run he had in Latest Japan Pro Wrestling. His run with the IWGP United States Championship in 2023 saw him steal the show on any NJPW card he was booked on, meaning that he was already at the highest of his game when he joined AEW. Nonetheless, AEW pay-per-views are known for having not less than one match that finally ends up being in some Match of the Yr conversation, meaning that Ospreay needed to go above what he had done in Japan as a way to live as much as the hype.
Fortunately for the “Aerial Assassin,” he had just the person in Konosuke Takeshita to assist them steal the show on an evening many consider to be one in every of AEW’s biggest ever shows. Ospreay asserts his dominance early doors with a couple of slaps to Takeshita as if to say “That is my company now,” resulting in the 2 trading control forwards and backwards within the early getting into a game of one-upmanship. Things progressively start to interrupt down and once they do, the motion really starts to kick up a notch. The match is best remembered for being a Will Ospreay showcase in order that anyone who had never seen him could see what the hype was about, but he doesn’t exactly have full control throughout your entire thing as Takeshita lands some huge bombs to place Ospreay in real danger.
For as pretty of a wrestler Ospreay might be at times as a few of his offense almost looks too perfect, it’s among the sloppier bumps that he takes which stand out most. He goes for the Oscutter but is caught in mid-air by Takeshita, who almost loses his balance attempting to land a Blue Thunder Bomb but finally ends up getting yet another half turn to land the move making it look much more devastating. The Brainbuster on the turnbuckle looks incredibly nasty, with Ospreay even getting rope-burn from landing so awkwardly, and the strikes he takes from Takeshita are among the loudest and most ferocious sounding elbows you’ll ever hear.
Obviously, Ospreay gets the shoulder up after every one in every of these moves, which is a standard criticism of his matches as it might get to a degree where it might take you out of the match by how much punishment he can seemingly brush off. Nonetheless, he does sell the fatigue on this one quite well by barely kicking out of moves towards the back-end of the bout. Ultimately, it’s Ospreay who hits the infamous Tiger Driver ’91 and a Hidden Blade for the win, bringing the curtain down on what can only be described as a human firework display. It did not have an enormous backstory or narrative going into it, but it surely’s too good of a match so that you can not wander off within the moment.
The Latest Face Of All Elite Wrestling
AEW Revolution 2024 was a show that centered around bidding farewell to one in every of the best babyfaces this business has ever seen, but as Sting rode off into the sunset, AEW fans witnessed step one in Will Ospreay becoming someone who may very well be a generational babyface in his own right.
If there’s one thing that some AEW fans struggled with when Ospreay used to make his yearly appearances during Forbidden Door season, it’s that for as much heel work as he tried to pack into his bouts, his offense is just too good not cheer for. Ospreay has at all times been a divisive figure, but you possibly can’t deny that once you see him doing among the things he can do, you already know there are some kids watching who will exit onto their trampolines and begin bouncing around attempting to emulate the “Aerial Assassin.”
That is probably the largest takeaway from this match. AEW had bagged themselves a person who might be the real-life superhero that can appeal to the younger fans while impressing the older fans by simply being probably the most athletic man they’ve ever seen in person. It wasn’t just the in-ring motion either as his presentation that had turn into common in NJPW stood out in one of the best ways amongst the remaining of the AEW roster, from his entrance robe to the sound of his entrance music, Ospreay left Revolution looking like one in every of the largest stars within the business and he’d only wrestled one match.
Flowers should be given to Konosuke Takeshita as well, who continues to be with The Don Callis Family to this present day despite lots of tension between himself and Kazuchika Okada. Takeshita has all the flexibility to hit the heights that Ospreay can in between the ropes, it’s just whether AEW will put all of its stock into “The Alpha” in the approaching years, He might need to interrupt away from Callis to ensure that that to occur, and we’ll see what developments are made on that front when Takeshita challenges Jon Moxley for the AEW Continental Championship on March 15.
Sadly, Ospreay won’t be on this yr’s Revolution card as he continues to be recovering from a serious neck injury that has kept him out since last yr’s Forbidden Door event. Nonetheless, judging by the undeniable fact that AEW constantly runs video packages on TV about Ospreay’s return, it’s clear that the corporate has big plans for him when he does eventually return, which everyone will likely be hoping is in time for AEW’s return to Wembley Stadium for All In London 2026. Will he be the identical when he comes back? Time will tell, and Ospreay has already adjusted his style from his NJPW days, but he’ll give as much effort when he returns as he did on this match with Takeshita, and that is why he can genuinely make the claim of being on one other level.