Kenny Omega confirms Revolution’s ending did not go as planned

In what should be the final word on the big wrestling story of the past several days, Kenny Omega gave The Wrestling Observer Newsletter a statement regarding the end of AEW Revolution.

Omega successfully defended his AEW World title against Jon Moxley in the Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch which closed the Mar. 7 PPV. That wasn’t the promised payoff, however. The main event built toward a big explosion when the 30 minute match timer ticked down to zero. Kenny and his allies Don Callis & the Good Brothers left Moxley incapacitated in the ring as the timer expired. Eddie Kingston raced in to save his friend. Then... [fart noise].

The company quickly pivoted to blaming the “dud” on Kenny’s lack of bomb-building skills. The approach paid off on Wednesday’s Dynamite when Kingston and Mox delivered a compelling explanation for Eddie’s reaction, but confusion still lingered from Tony Khan’s post-PPV remarks that many took as an attempt to sell the idea that the sparklers-and-smoke ending had been the plan all along.

Even after Kingston’s oratory skills and traumatic personal history helped salvage the ending for his character, there were still fans who paid for an explosion. The lack of one, and the implication AEW was never going to give them one, left a bad taste.

Omega’s statement should help in that regard. We’d already heard rumors he was “furious” backstage on Sunday night. The WON paints the picture of a guy who’d worked hard to deliver the rare deathmatch that featured great in-ring action followed by a satisfying kaboom, and who was as upset as anyone else when it didn’t work to specifications.

“Yeah, it was really deflating to do so much preparation, test the explosions, have them be impressive in the rehearsal, and then have it be something so much different than what was promised.

”It made me appreciate everyone who worked hard and did their part even more, though. But like you said, we really wanted to have a good one, and we added real barbed wire to help with the feeling of danger so we really risked a lot. Again, I loved the match, glad we did it, sucks about the finale.”

It’s the quote a lot of us were looking for in the immediate wake of the show. Now that we have it, along with an intriguing in-story explanation for everything but the announcers reaction... everyone can make their own determination as to whether they’re satisfied with AEW’s response, but that should be that.