(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Kenny Omega vs. Christian Cage – AEW Rampage #1

Hey remember Kenny Omega, that guy once labeled the best professional wrestler in the world and one of AEW’s founding fathers? Whatever happened to him? Oh, he’s been sidelined for almost a year due to serious illness? Well, isn’t that depressing.

It has been almost a full year since Omega wrestled his last match and, as of this writing, nothing concrete has been said of his return. There have been rumors here and there but nothing substantial. When he does come back (it’s not a matter for “if” for someone who loves pro-wrestling as much as Kenny Omega), people are going to be very curious about what he will do.

But while Omega’s return is growing ever more likely with each passing day, there’s one thing that isn’t: that he’ll return the same man as he was before. Considering that he’d be coming back from diverticulitis, a nasty condition that not even Brock Lesnar could overcome completely unscathed, there’s a growing possibility that Best Bout Machine Kenny Omega might never be seen again.

If that ends up happening then we might be left with a more subdued version of Omega, one capable of having great matches yet one that’s still far removed from his 2016-2018 prime. With that in mind let’s take a look at one of Omega’s lesser AEW matches since, after all, this might end up being what we end up seeing from Omega down the road.

The Story

Kenny Omega spent much of 2021 pretending to be Vader as he began collecting world titles and calling himself ‘The Belt Collector’. First he won the AEW World Championship in December 2020 and then in April 2021 he won TNA/Impact’s world title, which was represented by two belts: the Impact World Championship and the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. It was also around this time that AEW also started promoting the fact that Omega also held Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide’s top singles title, the AAA Mega Championship, which he had won in 2019. So here was Omega with three different company’s top title belts built as this nigh-unstoppable force…though if we’re being honest he was still at least two titles short of cosplaying as Keiji “suit of armor made of title belts” Muto.

Meanwhile, Christian Cage was hyped up as one of AEW’s biggest signees to date, as a former World Champion or somesuch, and debuted at Revolution in March 2021. For the next several months Christian went on an undefeated streak in both singles and tags until he was eventually credible enough to earn a shot at Kenny Omega, who pretty much held all the belts worth pursuing. Thus it was a battle between short-term momentum and long-term success. Christian was rising quickly through AEW’s rank while Omega had all the gold to prove his dominance. But while Christian was thus far undefeated he was still a babyface who fought fair while Omega…wasn’t.

Omega was a villain at the time (or at least as close to outright villainy that he could possibly portray) who used his manager Don Callis as a source of cheap heat whenever possible. In other words, Omega was trying to marry his new flashy style with old school managerial shenanigans. This seemed like an odd turn for a guy who built his name on fighting alone and surviving the pro-wrestling equivalent of a thermonuclear blast but thus far he had succeeded in, at the very least, showing a new side of himself. But would this new gimmick work long-term in match-quality-focused AEW?

The Match

This took place on August 13, 2021. It was rated ****1/2 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

This is for Omega’s IMPACT World Championship and by association the TNA World Heavyweight Championship. They spent the first sixty seconds soaking in the atmosphere as this is the first-ever match on AEW Rampage. Man, remember when that actually meant something? They lock-up and jockey for control against the ropes. Christian knocks Omega down and does his BANG taunt into a middle finger. Omega seems nonplussed by this as he teases a lock-up but then kicks Christian’s gut and lands some chops. Christian reverses an Irish whip and tries a clothesline but Omega holds onto the ropes. Then he ducks down and chops Christian to the mat. Both guys tease their finishers but Omega bails to ringside. Christian chases him around the ring until they re-enter it at which point Omega starts stomping away on Christian.

They trade chops in a corner until Omega lands a corner splash and dumps Christian ringside. Both guys dodge each other some more until Christian lands a baseball slide dropkick. Christian goes for a missile dropkick but Don Callis distracts both him and the referee long enough for Omega to shove Christian off the top rope and to the floor.

Omega drives Christian back-first into the barricade and continues stomping on said back once in the ring. Omega follows with a Muto flashing elbow for two and chokes Christian on the ropes with his foot while also mocking the crowd. Omega takes a bit too long showboating as Christian gets a sudden small package for two. Omega keeps him grounded by staying out of his line of sight. Christian tries fighting back but Omega shuts him down with stiff shots to the head and chest. Omega teases a suplex but Christian counters with a snap suplex of his own, only for Omega to capitalize first with an eye rake.

Omega gets Christian in superplex position but Christian fights him off and counters with a sunset flip powerbomb. Christian follows with something like twenty corner punches which brings the crowd to their feet. He stands on Omega’s back as Omega’s on the second rope and then dives out of the ring for an uppercut to the jaw. Then Christian lands a diving uppercut and covers for a two-count. Omega blocks a Killswitch and lands his You Can’t Escape combo for a near-fall of his own. Omega tries Aoi Shoudou but Christian counters into a reverse DDT for two. Christian tries a spear. Omega answers with a kneelift right to the face, a kneeling powerbomb, and a V-Trigger knee strike…all for a two-count. Omega tries the One-Winged Angel. Christian blocks it so Omega switches to Croyt’s Wrath. Christian holds onto the ropes for dear life, then escapes, and lands a springboard sunset flip. Omega rolls out and charges for another V-Trigger. Christian ducks so Omega’s knee hits the turnbuckle. Christian lands a spear but only gets two.

Both men get up slowly but then Omega magically spins around and lands two snap dragon suplexes. Omega tries another V-Trigger but Christian rolls onto the apron, dodges an attack, and lands a reverse hotshot. Christian lands a frog splash but Omega kicks out. Callis distracts the referee long enough for Omega to land a low blow. This distraction spot goes on WAY longer than normal as the Young Bucks sneak down and slide a chair into the ring. Omega teases an OWA onto the opened chair. Christian counters with a Killshot onto it instead. Christian throws the evidence out of the ring. Then the referee turns around at just the right moment to count to three. Christian wins the IMPACT title!

Winner and NEW Impact World Champion after 15:28: Christian Cage

You can watch the full match here.

Review

This certainly was a historic match but more for trivia reasons than anything else. It was a fun little sprint with Omega mostly playing the hits as he hammed it up as best he could with Callis running interference whenever possible. They were a bit heavy-handed with the heel manager shtick, though I understand why since they had to go the extra mile to make the crowd boo Omega as the heel in the match. But therein lies the problem: even when he’s doing everything possible to be as obnoxious as possible Omega can’t be a proper heel. There are two reasons for this: 1) Omega’s in-ring approach doesn’t lend itself to generating either boos as noise or as anything remotely resembling heel heat; and 2) Omega has such a deeply-rooted status as a babyface workhorse that he would literally have to stomp on a sack full of newborn kittens just to get people to really show ire and hostility towards him, and even then some people would still cheer him on because he’s the poster child for today’s ‘ironic cool heel’ archetype.

So with Omega trying – and failing – to be a proper heel it was up to Christian to try and carry the lead for two men to get this story off the ground. He largely succeeded because, and this might come as a surprise to some, Christian actually knows how to play FIP quite well. Sure he’s better suited to being a heel but he knows how to portray the other side well enough. Here he took a beating and tried several times to get ahead only for Omega to cut him off constantly. Yes, it was as formulaic as it comes with both guys following the industry standard seven-step match to a T. But that’s precisely what Christian needed to shine as a babyface. The two-on-one situation made it that much easier for Christian to generate sympathy. He overcame the odds and kept fighting back despite Omega proving to be the better athlete in pretty much every situation.

But most importantly, all that conniving underhandedness blew up in Omega’s face spectacularly when Christian used Omega’s chair against him. It was a bit ridiculous in execution – Callis holding the referee back took WAY too long to setup and execute to the point that it started to make the action look silly and over-the-top – but the payoff was exactly what it needed to be. Omega’s match-long smugness and overconfidence bit him in the ass. He thought he had full control but then he got hoisted by his own petard. That final shot was done very well and the crowd reacted to it as enthusiastically as they could. They treated it like a big deal and Christian looked like he was genuinely happy with the result.

Final Rating: ***3/4

Somehow this match came across as complete and incomplete at the same time. It felt as though a good 5-10 minutes were cut and they skipped a bit of the start, most of the middle heat portion, and then just went for the dazzling conclusion. Considering how well these guys worked together they could’ve gone for a bit longer and the match would’ve been elevated to that upper level. As it stands this match didn’t really make me want to see more because all of that more stuff was already left on the cutting room floor.

That being said this was still one of the better singles matches of Christian’s career and a passable if not pedestrian performance from Omega. It didn’t come across as a monumental achievement for Christian even though the hype implied that it would be. Yet Christian has proven himself to be hard to replace on AEW’s bloated roster and is doing a serviceable job in his current role. As for Omega, this was far from his best work yet it serves as a glaring reminder of how much his presence is missed on AEW’s weekly broadcasts.

Thanks for reading.