We are almost in the month of March which means the first AEW pay-per-view of the year is right around the corner. If All In is AEW's equivalent of WWE WrestleMania, then Revolution can arguably be seen as AEW's version of SummerSlam in that it is usually billed as the second biggest event of the year for the company, and always has some standout moments.The 2024 Revolution event was particularly noteworthy for a number of reasons. The show was built around Sting's final match where he and Darby Allin, with the help of some friends and family, defeated The Young Bucks to send "The Icon" out on a high note. Eddie Kingston proved that his Continental Classic victory over Bryan Danielson wasn't a fluke by getting another victory over the "American Dragon," forcing Danielson to shake his hand after the match was done, and the story of Swerve Strickland and Hangman Page took another turn as their three-way match with Samoa Joe ended with the "Samoan Submission Machine" retaining his AEW World Championship.In amongst all of that was what we will be focusing on today, the official arrival of Will Ospreay to the AEW roster. AEW fans already knew who Ospreay was thanks to his various appearances for the company through the company's working relationship with New Japan Pro Wrestling, but when his NJPW contract expired in February 2024, he packed up his things and took his talents stateside and became an official member of All Elite Wrestling. Ospreay wanted a big coming out party at Revolution for the first match of his new journey, and with him being a member of The Don Callis Family, "The Invisible Hand" had an idea.To truly see if Ospreay was capable of hanging with the best that AEW had to offer, Callis decided to pit two of his own family members against each other and made Konosuke Takeshita Ospreay's first opponent. Takeshita had beaten Kenny Omega twice in one week in 2023 and had risen through the ranks since the turn of the new year, meaning that a victory over Ospreay would do wonders for him in his quest for gold in AEW.With Revolution 2026 just over two weeks away, we here at Wrestling Inc. will be taking a look back at some of the best matches and moments from the show's past, and this one most certainly deserves to have some praise showered on it. So let's roll back the clock by two years and shine a spotlight on Will Ospreay vs. Konosuke Takeshita from AEW Revolution 2024!
As mentioned earlier, long-time AEW fans had already witnessed some of the things Will Ospreay could do, with many of those fans also following the insane run he had in New Japan Pro Wrestling. His run with the IWGP United States Championship in 2023 saw him steal the show on any NJPW card he was booked on, meaning that he was already at the top of his game when he joined AEW. However, AEW pay-per-views are known for having at least one match that ends up being in some Match of the Year conversation, meaning that Ospreay had to go above what he had done in Japan in order to live up to the hype.Fortunately for the "Aerial Assassin," he had just the man in Konosuke Takeshita to help them steal the show on a night many consider to be one of AEW's greatest ever shows. Ospreay asserts his dominance early doors with a few slaps to Takeshita as if to say "This is my company now," leading to the two trading control back and forth in the early going in a game of one-upmanship. Things gradually start to break down and once they do, the action really starts to kick up a notch. The match is best remembered for being a Will Ospreay showcase so that anyone who had never seen him could see what the hype was about, but he doesn't exactly have full control throughout the entire thing as Takeshita lands some huge bombs to put Ospreay in real danger.For as pretty of a wrestler Ospreay can be at times as some of his offense almost looks too perfect, it's some of the sloppier bumps that he takes which stand out most. He goes for the Oscutter but is caught in mid-air by Takeshita, who almost loses his balance trying to land a Blue Thunder Bomb but ends up getting one more half turn to land the move making it look even more devastating. The Brainbuster on the turnbuckle looks incredibly nasty, with Ospreay even getting rope-burn from landing so awkwardly, and the strikes he takes from Takeshita are some of the loudest and most ferocious sounding elbows you will ever hear.Obviously, Ospreay gets the shoulder up after every one of these moves, which is a common criticism of his matches as it can get to a point where it can take you out of the match by how much punishment he can seemingly brush off. However, he does sell the fatigue in this one quite well by barely kicking out of moves towards the back-end of the bout. In the end, it's Ospreay who hits the infamous Tiger Driver '91 and a Hidden Blade for the win, bringing the curtain down on what can only be described as a human firework display. It didn't have a big backstory or narrative going into it, but it's too good of a match for you to not get lost in the moment.
AEW Revolution 2024 was a show that centered around bidding farewell to one of the greatest babyfaces this business has ever seen, but as Sting rode off into the sunset, AEW fans witnessed the first step in Will Ospreay becoming someone who could be a generational babyface in his own right.If there's one thing that some AEW fans struggled with when Ospreay used to make his yearly appearances during Forbidden Door season, it's that for as much heel work as he tried to pack into his bouts, his offense is simply too good not cheer for. Ospreay has always been a divisive figure, but you can't deny that when you see him doing some of the things he can do, you know there are some kids watching who will go out onto their trampolines and start bouncing around trying to emulate the "Aerial Assassin."That's probably the biggest takeaway from this match. AEW had bagged themselves a man who can be the real-life superhero that will appeal to the younger fans while impressing the older fans by simply being the most athletic man they've ever seen in person. It wasn't just the in-ring action either as his presentation that had become common in NJPW stood out in the best way amongst the rest of the AEW roster, from his entrance robe to the sound of his entrance music, Ospreay left Revolution looking like one of the biggest stars in the business and he'd only wrestled one match.Flowers must be given to Konosuke Takeshita as well, who is still with The Don Callis Family to this day despite a lot of tension between himself and Kazuchika Okada. Takeshita has all the ability to hit the heights that Ospreay can in between the ropes, it's just whether AEW will put all of its stock into "The Alpha" in the coming years, He might need to break away from Callis in order for that to happen, and we will see what developments are made on that front when Takeshita challenges Jon Moxley for the AEW Continental Championship on March 15.Sadly, Ospreay won't be on this year's Revolution card as he is still recovering from a serious neck injury that has kept him out since last year's Forbidden Door event. However, judging by the fact that AEW continuously runs video packages on TV about Ospreay's return, it's clear that the company has big plans for him when he does eventually return, which everyone will be hoping is in time for AEW's return to Wembley Stadium for All In London 2026. Will he be the same when he comes back? Time will tell, and Ospreay has already adjusted his style from his NJPW days, but he will give as much effort when he returns as he did in this match with Takeshita, and that's why he can genuinely make the claim of being on another level.
