Will Ospreay: The Full WrestleTalk Exclusive Interview

Just before WrestleMania, we had the chance to speak to former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, NJPW star and arguably one of the best wrestlers in the world right now, Will Ospreay.

During the very entertaining hour-long chat, website Louis Dangoor had the chance to speak to Will about a variety of topics, including a potential AEW and NJPW working relationship, the differences between WWE and AEW, and his desire for a match in 2021 with CM Punk.

You can either have a watch/listen to the entire interview, or you can read some of the most noteworthy parts below.

When asked about his relationship with The Elite members Cody, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks:

“The last thing Kenny ever said to me, we were in this big meeting and he pulled me to one side and said with the Bucks and Cody “alright, you’ve got to take the reigns now. It’s all on you”.

We then spoke about the differences between AEW and WWE, and Will had the following to say:

“I think Bryan from the Wrestling Observer said this. If you pay attention to WWE, sometimes you are not rewarded. But if you pay attention to what the Elite boys did with that tag match at Revolution. Every call back, like Adam doing the chicken wing and Matt and nick doing the Golden Trigger and Hangman doing the One-Winged Angel. If you pay attention, you are rewarded. AEW rewards its fans.

“We’ve been in this mindset for so long that it’s just WWE. After WCW, we went “oh it’s just WWE now”. That was all it was, we just settled with it. It’s weird like WWE sometimes knocks it out of the park like McIntyre winning the Rumble. What a good idea. And sometimes like that Hell in a Cell match you’re like what are you doing? You’re like why, why did you do this to wrestling?

“You watch AEW and you are like this is fantastic. It’s brilliant. I love every single minute of it. I’m over the moon that Bea [Priestley] loves every single minute of it. Every time she comes back she’s like “I had so much fun, Kenny is awesome to work with, Cody is awesome to work with, Matt & nick are the loveliest human beings of all time.”

We asked Will if there is a potential working relationship in the pipeline between AEW and NJPW, and this is what he had to say:

“There’s nothing. I wish I could tell you there is something, but there isn’t.”

Following on from that, we asked if Will would be open to the prospect of New Japan and AEW working together, and this was his response:

“Yes and no. Yes because I think that’s what fans want, and I’m a believer in giving them what they want. No, because neither party needs each other. The main reason is, AEW is succeeding, Let’s do this in terms of wrestling and in terms of revenue. I don’t know what AEW makes, I’ve got no idea, but I can only assume that because Tony Khan is behind it it’s doing financially very very well. Especially because they’ve got four more years on TNT, they don’t need to change anything. Keep doing what you’re doing.

“New Japan has its highest revenue to date, Regardless of it happening, we are putting on bangers every single big pay-per-view. Does NJPW need AEW? No. Does AEW need NJPW? No. But we can support from the sidelines. I support AEW and I hope they support New Japan.

“If there was a chance for it to come true and for it to happen, I’d be all for it. I’ll strap up and I’m ready to put in a shift. Until then, I’m supporting from the sidelines, they are all my friends but I’m 100% a New Japan guy.”

We asked if Will would be open to working limited dates with AEW like Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho do for AEW, and he said he’d be up for it. We also asked who he would want to face on the AEW roster:

“I saw an interview with Tony Khan, someone sent it to me, about AEW guys working for New Japan and he said ‘I wouldn’t mind it if NJPW sent some of their guys our way.’ To be fair, we should at least repay a favour. All it needs is for one party to pick up the phone. It’s just a phone call away. If Tony did want me to show up, as long as New Japan are happy with it, I’d happily do it.

“PAC. Just because we didn’t get a defined finish. It was a 30 minute time limit draw at Rev Pro. I would really like to do that. But now I’ve just said it, I really like Jericho. I grew up watching WCW. It’s Chris Jericho. I would love to do Chris Jericho. I’ll lean towards Jericho because it’s never happened before.”

Following a bit of a back-and-forth on Twitter last month, we asked Will his thoughts on a potential dream match with former WWE Champion CM Punk. Will said that while nothing was in the pipeline right now, he feels a match “could happen” in 2021:

“Of course it would, but only in a New Japan ring. I have this thing where I don’t think this is going to happen. Here’s how I view the situation and sorry if I drag this out. I would listen to your idea if it’s John Cena, if it was Rey Mysterio, if it was Daniel Bryan or Will Ospreay. No matter what you think of my talent and my ability, superstardom wise, I’m a goldfish and Cena, Bryan and Mysterio are great white f’ing sharks”. Why me? I get this itch and I’m like, is he wanting to come back? I don’t know. Then I start just messaging around, and I’m like is he pulling a Punk card on me? Am I just being f’ed with?, and people are like I don’t know dude, maybe.

I sat there for a second and was like I’m just going to ignore it. I’m not going to say anything, and then he tagged me in on Instagram. I’ve never talked to him in my entire life. We’ve never said one word to each other. It was a tweet between us and I was like ‘is this going to happen?’

‘I’m sitting there fidgeting and I’m like I brought Amazing Red out of retirement, could I bring CM Punk back. I’m going to try for it. I’m going to put it out there to the world. I will always be a Punk fan, the moment he said cross-legged on that stage.

Jericho was huge when he came over to face Omega, we could only top that if we got Punk, and I think it can happen. I don’t want to say it’s in the pipeline. I don’t want to say there’s been words. I don’t want to say there has been phone calls between the offices because there hasn’t been. But there is a want from him to listen at least, and that is the only bit of hope I need to try and make this happen. I will behind over f’ing backwards and fold myself in half to try and bring back CM Punk.

‘He’s the only one that can make this happen. I’m calling his bluff here. I’m going to say just listen to my idea. Just listen to what we’ve got in mind.

‘It’s one day, alright maybe three at max. You’ve got well well advanced warning. January 4th. It can happen. Just pick up the phone. It can happen.

“I want people to want something outside of the realms of possibility. We’ve been told for years if Punk was ever going to come back it would be WWE. What if it wasn’t? It can happen.”

Finally, we asked Will about his Twitter spat with former WWE and Universal Champion Seth Rollins in 2019, and Will discussed the rumoured role that Paul Heyman played in working things out:

“There was a rumour going around when Seth and I had that spat and he apologised that it was Paul telling him to apologise. Apparently so. I don’t know if its true but I wouldn’t put it past him. Paul is a real big supporter of me and I’m the biggest fan of his.”

Feel free to use any of these quotes, but please credit WrestleTalk.com if you do. 

• NJPW
• Will Ospreay
• AEW
• wwe

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