10 Secrets To A Guaranteed POP In Wrestling
2. Kicking Out Of A Finisher
When all else fails, let somebody kick out of your finish. Works every time.
Unless they're one of the very best professional wrestlers of all time, this is something that the vast majority of pro wrestlers do rather often to chase that high of a molten crowd under their complete control.
Kenny Omega needn't rely on the trick.
The man is such a genius at structuring a match that he doesn't have to do this. He can orchestrate a louder pop by teasing a move, by registering how much the execution of a move is going to be unhinged in its apparent danger before it is even struck. He has perfected the pacing and rhythm of a match so that everything within it matters. Consider the Wrestle Kingdom spot, in which he battered Will Ospreay's head through an unforgiving Japanese table.
It was actually tame, by the standards of the wider match anyway, but the visual was so stunning, and the danger level had been set so high, that it registered as nothing less than the babyface fight of Ospreay's life.
Since few others are this clever, if they want to make a TV match feel big and turn up the volume, the 2.99 kick-out and NXT face hasn't stopped working yet.
Mostly, anyway.