100 Best Wrestling Moves EVER
2. Kenny Omega | One-Winged Angel
Any move can get over if it’s built well enough - Hulk Hogan’s leg drop is a great example of a simple manoeuvre that meant the world - but the genius of the One-Winged Angel is that the move is as incredible as it is well-protected.
And the brilliance of it runs deeper still.
Just one wrestler - Kota Ibushi, almost a decade and a half ago - has ever kicked out of it. A vile, nausea-inducing head drop of a move, the impact element is superb - but the moments before the drop elevate the OWA to an unprecedented level.
Omega, a fiercely intelligent wrestler, knows that the convoluted set-up enhances the move with a dramatic risk/reward element. The risk is evidently worth it, gauging by the effectiveness of the finish, but that risk - Omega by clawing at his rival's head leaves himself vulnerable to a poison ‘rana counter, a crucifix bomb, and memorably, PAC’s Brutaliser - drives forward a spellbinding back-and-forth sequence deep into a dramatic closing stretch.
The noise Omega will generate when he one day allows somebody to kick out of it will be an all-time pop in the entire history of the form.