AEW: Josh Alexander on Decision to Join AEW Being “Tony Khan Is A Boss Who Cares For His Employees. That Means A Great Deal To Me”, Will Ospreay Not Interested in Moving to US Despite “Insane” Travel Schedule, More News

Josh Alexander Comments on His Decision to Join AEW Being “Tony Khan Is A Boss Who Cares For His Employees. That Means A Great Deal To Me”

SHAK Wrestling held a recent interview with Josh Alexander. One of the topics discussed included Alexander’s thoughts about how AEW CEO Tony Khan being a boss who cares for his employees being a big reason for his decision to join the company after leaving TNA Wrestling.

“I read all the criticism and all the speculation on why I made my choice and stuff. From the second I met Tony Khan during the COVID era in TNA, I got this impression that as a boss, he’s somebody that actually cares for his employees. You’re not just a number. You’re not just an asset to the company. He actually cares about you. That’s something that means a great deal to me. In working for Scott D’Amore in TNA, I developed a relationship with him, and there’s a lot of trust that goes into this stuff. So I just wasn’t comfortable working somewhere where I just be an asset, something that you could just toss away in an instant, and stuff like that.

I wanted somebody that’s going to care about me and care about the fact that I have a family that I’m feeding and that I do have such a passion for this and I hope we share that passion and stuff like that. It’s that this locker room is full of people that I’ve known and worked with over the past 20 years, and I’ve developed relationship with, relationships with and it’s because, there’s people like Edge, Chris, Jericho, Kenny Omega, in this company that I have never wrestled, that I’ve dreamed of wrestling for decades. So that all made it very easy for me to make my decision.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Will Ospreay Comments on Him Not Being Interested in Moving to U.S. Despite His “Insane” Travel Schedule

Bleacher Report held a recent interview with Will Ospreay. One of the topics discussed included Ospreay’s thoughts about him not being interested in moving to the United States despite his “insane” travel schedule for AEW shows.

“There’s nothing in my being that makes me want to move to the United States. I respect it and understand why people do it, but I have such a lovely life here and my son’s doing really well in school. I am very happy here. I don’t have any aspirations to want to move.”

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AEW News & Notes

As noted before, Darby Allin successfully reached the summit of Mount Everest this past Sunday. Allin has been on a break from AEW since this past December due to his planned climb of the mountain that had started this past mid-April. Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that Allin making a surprise appearance at AEW’s Double or Nothing 2025 event on May 25th in Glendale, Arizona is “not an impossibility.”

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp also reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that AEW officials had serious concerns about Jamie Hayyer’s ability to return to in-ring action due to a back injury that had sidelined her for over a year. Sapp reported that while Hayter had mentioned her back injury issues during her promo segment with Mercedes Mone at this past Wednesday’s AEW Dynamite show, this was something that was not just worked into the storyline for her upcoming Women’s Owen Hart Foundation Cup Finals match and instead was legit doubt about her in-ring future.

As noted before, “The Glamour” Mariah May’s contract with AEW is currently believed to be expiring either this summer or this November and is currently believed to be potentially leaving AEW for WWE. May has been absent from AEW since this past March’s Revolution 2025 event. In a recent response to a fan on Twitter, May claimed that the reason for her current abscense is simply due to her just being on a vacation break. This person stated “one day, many years from now, someone will ask, whatever happened to @MariahMayx?” May responded stating “god forbid a girl takes a vacation.“

As noted before, Kenny Omega revealed in a recent Twitch stream that Hikaru Shida’s current abscense from AEW is due to issues over her new work visa taking longer than expected to be approved and he has been taking care of her cats while she is in Japan. Shida recently provided an update on Twitter stating that her cats has been getting along well at Omega’s house. Shida posted a video of her cats relaxing and stated “Yup. Like he said, Kenny is taking care of my kitties and he sent me this video. Ruta and Medoh are so relaxing there☺️“

In a recent interview with Fightful, Gabe Kidd provided an update on his current status with AEW stating that he is not signed to a contract with the company. Kidd stated “Fuck no. Fuck no. Not a chance. Not a prayer. I’m not an AEW guy. You think I’m going to go out there and profess how I feel about New Japan and say all this stuff about AEW and then sign a contract with them six months later? Am I a dickhead? I’m not a fucking idiot. People think I’m stupid, and that’s far from it. I’m smarter than all these fuckers. I’m one step ahead, always.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

During the same interview, Kidd also gave his thoughts about Kevin Knight signing a dual contract with AEW and New Japan Pro Wrestling. Kidd stated “F–king Idiot. I want to fight him.” Following the release of the interview, Knight responded on Twitter stating “The guy is going to a company he “hates” to be someone’s lackey and I’m the idiot? Oh okay The jokes write themselves…“

In a recent interview with Undisputed, Mercedes Mone gave her thoughts about how she gets to live her dream for her wrestling career through her work in AEW and internationally. Mone stated “I wanted to explore Japanese women’s wrestling and UK women’s wrestling for so long. I’m not dreaming about it anymore – I’m doing it. Before, there were so many times when I was getting four-minute matches – or we’d get to the building and something would change. You’d spend weeks planning for it all to change at the last minute. Now, it’s not changing. I get to go out and do it. It’s mine to claim, it’s mine to carry, it’s mine to do. I get to go out and live my dream.“

In a recent episode of the Talk’n Shop podcast, the Good Brothers gave their thoughts about their longtime friendship with the Young Bucks. Doc Gallows stated “This needs to be said because you read a lot of shit out there. We talk to the Young Bucks every single day. If you have something bad to say about the Young Bucks, you don’t know them or you’re looking for clickbait. Those are two of the most genuine guys in the entire business. The level of success that they’ve had, to be as cool and genuine as they are.” Karl Anderson responded stating “The Young Bucks wanted to team with us. They wanted to have a good time with us. They did that for us and we did that for them. We would do anything for them. Our phone is always on for those boys.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with Sports Illustrated’s The Takedown on SI, Willow Nightingale gave her thoughts about her getting to compete in the Anarchy in the Arena match at this year’s Double or Nothing event and her approach to being involved in the match. Nightingale stated “I think, yeah, we’ve all been butt-kickers, but the story of brotherhood just being ‘for the boys and boys being boys’ can go deeper. Because obviously, AEW’s known for letting us girls go crazy and have our tag team street fight matches. The one that I had with Kris Statlander. But obviously, to be brought into another level to think like, ‘Oh well, they think they’re tough as the boys,’ like, no, we’re going to hang with the boys. It’s called anarchy, and we’re bringing it.“

In a recent Twitch stream, Kenny Omega gave his praise of Bayley for her message of support she gave to him during his recovery from diverticulitis. Omega stated “Wrestling is a funny business and sometimes people only care about you when you’re useful to them. Not sometimes, most of the time. If, for whatever reason, you’re taken out of the game, you’re not needed. Who cares about you? Especially if you’re considered the competition, which is why I can say Bayley is an incredible human being. I’ve never met her. As far as I know, aside from the Xavier Woods’ of the world, I don’t know if there is a common thread there between us, but she gave me a message when I was going through my diverticulitis, hoping for a speedy recovery. That’s how you know a very genuine, good person, good human being. I could never ever say anything bad of Bayley and I would always stick up for her in any situation, even though it’s not someone I’ve ever met in real life. It meant a lot in that moment for somebody to reach out. Generally, when people are considered your competition, you’re happy they are gone. You’re taught to be happy that they’re gone.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)