More On Will Ospreay WWE Rumors

Last week, New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) announced that Will Ospreay had to vacate the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship due to a neck injury, but that isn’t exactly true.

We have already covered that Will Ospreay refused to remain in Japan for treatment on his neck injury, and Voices of Wrestling has revealed this is why he was stripped of the World Heavyweight title.

The site is reporting that despite Will Ospreay being “hurt”, he was not advised to stop wrestling immediately and was never told that his injures were serious enough to the point that he’d have to vacate the title.

The plan was for Ospreay to work through the Wrestle Grand Slam tour before dropping the title to Kazuchika Okada, where he’d be given some time away from the company to “heal up”.

The site is reporting that once the tour was cancelled, Ospreay was told that he’d be allowed to return home. However, the wrestlers were then told to stay in Japan as the company had re-added a few dates to the schedule.

Will Ospreay left Japan and returned home to the United Kingdom over a variety of different issues, some personal and others related to the frustrations that foreign talents have with the New Japan office right now.

With Will Ospreay going against orders given to him by New Japan and leaving Japan, the company was left with “no choice” but to vacate the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, using Ospreay’s neck issues as a cover story.

Following this news, it was speculated that Ospreay could be heading to NXT UK, especially after Fumi Saito said on the Pacific Rim Podcast that he’d heard Ospreay was going to be working with WWE soon.

However, Voices of Wrestling note that this isn’t exactly true, as there is a misunderstanding about what NXT UK actually is, with many just “connecting the dots” considering Ospreay was homesick and wanted to return to England.

Ospreay is under New Japan contract right now and is not believed to be a free agent until 2024, so it’s unlikely that the Englishman would be able to work with WWE unless granted his release from NJPW.

Voices of Wrestling note that it makes little sense for Ospreay to join NXT UK considering he could get a much better deal working with AEW or ROH. They also note that WWE would likely want Ospreay in NXT or the main roster.

However, Japanese wrestlers believe that Ospreay is heading to NXT UK, with “at least one person in the office” telling people that he is “convinced” that Ospreay wants to work for NXT UK.

For any additional updates on the situation with Will Ospreay, New Japan and WWE NXT UK, make sure you stay tuned to WrestleTalk.com.

What are your thoughts on the above story? Let us know in the comments on Twitter or Facebook.

• NJPW
• Will Ospreay
• NXT UK
• wwe

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