Kenny Omega Comments on Failed Explosion at AEW Revolution

Kenny Omega gave his thoughts on the explosion dud at the end of the Exploding Barbed Wire Death Match between him and Jon Moxley this past Sunday at AEW Revolution.

Omega told the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:

“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.”

Bryan Alvarez said on Wrestling Observer Live that Omega was “furious” backstage after the failed explosion.

Dave Meltzer also said in the Observer Newsletter that “the finish was tested out multiple times, and it worked great every time. Then the time it counted, it didn’t.”

People were legitimately booing after that pathetic attempt at an explosion. Keep in mind these are super AEW fans that actually paid money for this.

Just Ridiculous. #AEWRevolution pic.twitter.com/qSy5y8wxMp

— 💪🏾ISMA STYLES💪🏾⭐ (@ISMASTYLES11) March 8, 2021

During the press conference after the show, Tony Khan went with the improvised storyline idea that the explosion failed because Omega built a dud, and made it seem like the explosion was extremely weak because that was the best they were allowed to do, but that apparently wasn’t the case, and they did plan for a bigger explosion.

“I don’t know what people really wanted, unless you wanted us to actually explode the guys at the end, there’s only so much you can do,” Khan said after the show. “We did a lot of tests and safety precautions with the fire marshal and I think the story kind of gave us an out for the ring not completely exploding and killing both guys because at the end it was Kenny’s construction, this thing he built, and we saw him kind of build it crudely with a hammer. The construction of it was we were using barbed wire and had to take a lot of precautions and treat it with great care, and we had to do a lot of rehearsals with the explosions. But again, there’s only so much you can really do with explosions without really hurting people, so I think that’s why it was good to give us an out with the story when we didn’t actually explode the ring.”