10 Wrestling Photos Taken Moments Before Disaster

8. Kenny Omega Before He...Bombs

Shane McMahon WWE WrestleMania 39
AEW

Look, it was funny, and an embarrassing disaster, but you have to feel a degree of sympathy towards AEW, Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley when discussing the events of Revolution 2021. It wasn't a bad idea; it was the least ideal execution imaginable of a good one. 

Omega just wanted to do something - an Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match - that was f*cking sick. AEW permitted him the opportunity to do precisely that. It was a passion project; Omega is intent on mastering everything, in his bid to be considered the greatest, and the idea of him realising the potential of those spark-strewn images of '90s wrestling mags was evidently very compelling.

Omega was so excited that, in a signature easter egg, he even took to wearing an Atsushi Onita-style leather jacket before the match was announced. 

He had evidently thought deeply about the match and how to update it. In one utterly fantastic spot, Mox countered a figure-four attempt by kicking Omega arse-first into a bomb. And then, in a sensational twist that subverted the idea that the explosions are slowly spaced out, he was immediately John Woo drop-kicked into another blast of sparks. 

All for the big explosion to look like absolute sh*t, Omega to hit the roof, and for AEW to eat a lot of sh*t.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!