Will Ospreay on AEW has “Completely Changed My Life”, His Main Goal for AEW All In: Texas, Criticisms Over His Ring Style & Many of Those Same Critics Would Be Praising Him If He Was in WWE

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Will Ospreay as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Ospreay’s thoughts about his first year as a full-time wrestler in AEW

“I’ve really enjoyed it. I feel like I didn’t realize the heights that I could reach here. It’s just been like a crazy little ride and I feel like there’s so much that I have done and I’ve experienced and I’ve not really digested it really well. There’s things that I have digested, but I do love the environment. I do love the work ethic that I’m putting in. And there’s something about — you said it once upon a time, there’s something about getting your gym bag and going to the gym, and actually putting your gym shoes on and doing it. For me that feels like — there’s something about when I have my little bag and I’ve got me backpack, and I get on the airport, and when I get here, there’s a little drive and there’s a little work ethic that comes out of me. I’ve got like a mission, and I really want to stick to it, and I want to keep driving home how much AEW is the best wrestling here. I’ve just got that mad work ethic right now.”

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about his current main goal in AEW being to make their upcoming All In: Texas event as big as it can be for the company. Ospreay also gave his thoughts about how being in AEW has completely changed his life.

“I mean, for me, it’s All In. I think that’s the one where like, there’s 40,000 seats. That’s the biggest show that AEW does in North America. And I really want to drive it home,” Ospreay said. “I really want to put 40,000 seats in there. I don’t know what the metric is, and I honestly have no idea what we have to do to do that. But I’m making myself available and I live in England, I’m making myself constantly available. So if I need to go down to Arlington, I’m more than happy to go down. Like, I want to go do the schools, I want to go do the news reports, I want to go do everything.

Because I feel like my passion comes out when I talk about AEW. I flipping love it. I love what I’m doing. It’s completely changed my life, dude. Everything about my life has changed since we last spoke as well, and it’s been a crazy ride where I’m just super grateful. This is meant to be our big show. It’s All In for a reason. We’re going all in for this one. So I want all hands on deck, and I really want to persuade all of our punters and all of our fans to come over to Arlington on that day and celebrate with us. What was the highest one that they have done in North America? Was it the 20,000 in Grand Slam? So that’s 20,000 on the [East Coast]. Then we had The Forum, and that was like 15-16,000 in there. Then you had North Carolina, which is 16,000. So it’s possible, but you have to make it easy for these people to travel. You have to make it accessible for these people to do this stuff. And I just believe in it. I want everyone to come down and celebrate.

Ever since I’ve walked in here, I’ve come in with a great attitude. My whole mission is to build a team. I feel like whatever was going on in AEW before I got there, I’ve helped out with trying to get everyone on the same page. It’s hard for me to put into words sometimes, but the only thing that I can say is I think the audience trusts me, and I won’t break that trust.”

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about the criticisms over his in-ring style and how many of those same critics would be praising him if he had chosen to go to WWE and wrestled the same way.

“No (I don’t think it’s unfair that people aren’t as critical of certain spots if they happen in WWE). But then, if I had gone there, they’d be f*cking wanking into f*cking tissues over me. But it’s the same. That’s why you have to separate it, otherwise you drive yourself insane… Wrestling is my passion, it’s my job most importantly. But, if you have something that you’re passionate about, you really don’t care about what people are saying who have never impacted your career in your entire life. Once upon a time, they were big hits — that anyone that’s ever complained about AEW — like the grifters or whatever they’re called. I don’t know if that’s the right term. That’s what everyone says. But, even if they say something, they’re not impacting our show. We’re the second most profitable wrestling company of all-time. That’s not talked about enough and everyone wants to dig on it and I get it. There’s things that we could generally improve on and I think it’s fair to listen to some criticism. But, for me, I don’t lose sleep over anyone trying to tell me how to wrestle because now, look at me. I’m a f*cking idiot. I know I am, but, I’ve carved out this little lane for myself. I was destined to be someone that would have either worked in McDonald’s or pushed trolleys at Tesco’s. But because I grafted at this and because I learned the trade over in England and over in Japan and my enthusiasm and my passion comes over here, I don’t let things… if it’s just like, ‘Oh, this is sh*t.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because it’s sh*t.’ Well, that’s not fair. If you give me criticism and you give me points that I can work on, then I’ll try my best to work on it. I’m not gonna get it right away, but I think that’s the stuff that people need to speak more about.”

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about his appearance at a recent Pro-Wrestling: EVE event and how he gave a wrestler dressed up as Triple H a Pedigree.

“He didn’t say my name but like… (Ospreay said in reference to Triple H’s comments about being glad he didn’t get talents who are not in it for the grind) He was (talking about me) and I’ve got people that I won’t throw under the bus that’s saying, yeah, it was about me. I won’t throw anyone’s names under the bus but it was about me. I’m not taking it personally and like, oh, that hurt my feelings. It’s just kind of like, all right, you take a friendly jab at me, I’ll take one back. There’s nothing horrible about it. I don’t hate the guy. I’ve never met him. How can I hate someone that I’ve never even met?… No, I’ve never spoken to him. I have an agency talk to everyone and I’ve told everybody about my situation and why I want to remain in the U.K., which is why that kind of hurt me a little bit. Not to the point where it keeps me up at night. I was like, okay, you take a jab at me, I’ll take one back and then that’s it, we’re done, and then someone was at this show that I was — I was doing some stuff with Pro-Wrestling: EVE and they do this thing called the Multiverse Rumble and everybody dresses up as characters and somebody dressed up as Triple H. I walked in here and I looked, I went, ‘I’ve got to do it now, haven’t I?’ Because it’s funny and if anyone doesn’t think it’s funny, then, I can’t tell you what your humor is. But my humor is this is hilarious. I’m gonna do it.

If I got in trouble about this whole instance, I don’t understand why I got in trouble for it. I mean, I have an idea about it but… It was an amazing Pedigree. I might start doing it, might start doing it… Because it’s funny.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com, PostWrestling.com