Bryan Danielson has given his thoughts about the Tiger Driver 91 used by Will Ospreay at Forbidden Door 2023.
Toward the end of his match with Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay lifted him up into a powerbomb position, before dropping Omega unceremoniously onto his head.
This was a direct reference to Mitsuharu Misawa, who invented the move and coined the name “Tiger Driver 91”.
This was one of the “Super Finishers” of AJPW, and one of the move deadly moves in wrestling, alongside Kenta Kobashi’s “Burning Hammer”.
During his post-show media scrum appearance, Bryan Danielson was asked about many things, including injuries suffered in the ring.
He talked about the Tiger Driver 91 move used in the Will Ospreay vs Kenny Omega match, noting that its not the dangerous moves that usually injure you,and that any innocuous move could end in you getting injured.
“I remember when I was in WWE and John Cena tore his pec taking a hip toss. And so there are these things, and I go and talk to our doctors.” Danielson said,
“Legitimately, before matches and I say, ‘What do you think about this? Can I do this?’ and they are very frank with me. ‘No you can’t do that’ or ‘Yes, you can do this, but only under certain circumstances.’
“And I think for the safety of the performers, it’s the best thing for AEW to do that same kind of thing.”
He then mentioned seeing the “Tiger Driver 98”, as he mistakenly referred to it as.
Bryan Danielson mentioned the move Will Ospreay did “does scare me”, because there is a greater chance of injury.
He then questioned whether the move was even worth it, and asked whether it made the match any better.
“I saw the Tiger Driver ’98, whatever you want to call it — that stuff does scare me because the potential for injury is so great.” Bryan Danielson continued.
“And I know specifically from a Kenny Omega — him and Will Ospreay are just fantastic — was it worth it? Did it actually make the match better, or is it just risky and part of their career? I don’t have the answer for that.
“We all did things, I did things to get noticed that I wouldn’t do today. You have to balance those things and those are two very driven men about wanting to put on the best pro wrestling matches they can.
“I don’t think it’s my responsibility to say who should do what because I’ve done some pretty stupid things in my career, but I think we should be working with our medical staff to approve certain things.”
While the Tiger Driver 91 is an infamous move in Japan, it has not stopped Will Ospreay from using it as his next T-shirt design.
Renaming the move the “Storm Driver 93”, Ospreay is set to release a new t-shirt on ProWrestlingTees, featuring art of him hitting Kenny Omega with the move at Forbidden Door 2023.
The name “Storm Driver 93” is named after Will Ospreay. “Storm” is a word he has used for his moves in NJPW (Storm Breaker being one of his finishers), and given the fact that the “Tiger” in the “Tiger Driver” came from Mitsuharu Misawa’s time as “Tiger Mask”.
Meanwhile, the “93” signifies the year Ospreay was born. He was born in 1993, meaning he wasn’t even born when Misawa hit the first ever Tiger Driver 91.
Ospreay has labelled the new T-Shirt as “Coming Soon”, so we won’t have to wait long to pick up your version of him hitting Kenny Omega with the dangerous “Storm Driver 93” move.
If you use any quotes from this article, please give a H/T to Atletifo for the transcription.
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