Kenny Omega Explains Why He's Better Than Will Ospreay

Kenny Omega's first match in New Japan Pro-Wrestling in four years — a shot at Will Ospreay's IWGP United States Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 17 — is a little over a week away. Leading into their bout, Omega gave a lengthy interview to NJPW's website where the topic of how he and Ospreay stack up against each other inevitably came up.

"What separates Kenny Omega from anybody? It's a 'je ne sais quoi', I can't even put it into my own words what it is that makes me so much different to anybody else," explained Omega. "I think what it is though is that I'm not ever trying to emulate anybody. I'm not trying to be the next anybody, I'm trying to be the first me." 

Omega then brought Ospreay specifically into the equation, laying out the case for why the current champ falls short. "I feel like Will Ospreay has been kinda shoehorned into ... a position where he feels like he needs to be me. He feels like he needs to make the merchandise sales like I did," he continued. "He feels like he needs to sell tickets like I did, he feels like he needs to move sponsorships like I did, to break out worldwide, like I did. He could never do it, so he went about it in a different way, and it's the only way he knew how, by doing death-defying stunts on very small-scale independent wrestling shows."

However, the gap between both competitors can really be boiled down to the one thing Omega feels he has that Ospreay lacks: "Raw star power."

Wrestle Kingdom 17 takes place at the Tokyo Dome on January 4. The encounter between Omega and Ospreay will be their first time going head-to-head since a December 2015 match on the second night of Pro Wrestling Guerilla's 11th annual All-Star Weekend.