Kyle O’Reilly Recalls Facing KUSHIDA At NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors XXII

Kyle O’Reilly faced KUSHIDA in the finals of the 2015 NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors tournament, and he recently looked back at the bout. KUSHIDA picked up the win over O’Reilly in the finals of the tournament, and the AEW star spoke with Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp for a new interview. You can see highlights below:

Speaking with Sean Ross Sapp about the memorable match, Kyle would say that he originally felt like he didn’t live up to expectations with that match and would say that he was concerned about KUSHIDA being knocked out during the contest.

On initially being disappointed with the match: “In the time, I was mortified coming back. I thought it was awful. KUSHIDA got knocked out. A bunch of stuff went a little hairy. I was like, ‘We shit the bed completely.’ You put so much pressure on yourself. This whole tour had been building up to where it’s this finals match, and I put a lot of stress on myself and had such high expectations. This is before I learned, it’s 2015, so it’s before I learned that there is always going to be curveballs thrown at you every single time. Every big match I’ve ever had, something unexpected has happened. That’s just the nature of wrestling and performing live. You never know what to expect. That match, in the moment, I was like, ‘Oh my God.’

On being proud of the match now: “Looking back, I’m extremely proud of it and KUSHIDA is one of my all-time favorite opponents. Sometimes, you come across guys who you have such amazing chemistry with right off the bat. Before we even wrestled, I could tell, ‘Me and this guy are going to work really well together.’ Obviously, the New Japan office saw that as well and gave us the opportunity to face each other in the finals. I’m extremely proud of that moment because it’s a huge moment in my career to have main-evented Best of the Super Juniors. It’s really cool.”