Will Ospreay on Last Minute Plans Changes To His Match Against Kenny Omega at AEW All In 2026, His Entrance at All In, How He Wanted Another Song For His All In Entrance Before Using ‘Baba O’Riley’, His Mindset Ahead Of His Match Against Omega, & More

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured AEW World Champion Will Ospreay as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Ospreay’s thoughts about the process that led to his match against Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship at AEW’s All In 2026 event.

“Yeah, so much, man. It was just wild, just because going into it, I had really no ideas. I had feelings that I wanted to feel, but I didn’t know how to relay that in terms of the match storytelling. It was only when me and Kenny sat down and started talking about stuff, and then we just came together, and it was just like idea, flow and idea, flow. Honestly, I’d love to be able to tell you guys that when we were hours from going on, and we found out that some people that did stuff that we wanted to do in our match. So then it put us under even more pressure to try and change things around and try and fit it in within our story. It’s no one’s fault. Things happen. I don’t blame anyone in that situation, but it was just as frustrating as it was. What we came up with, what our plan B was, was way, way, way better. So, I was dead happy with that.”

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about if the plans for their the match was finalized right before they went out.

“Kind of no. It was maybe two or three matches before. So, we still had time on our hands, but I think a lot of it was just because we were putting so much pressure on ourselves, and we were just worried because obviously when you do these type of shows, you’re always communicating with the other wrestlers. But because it was a stadium, it’s so hard to have that kind of communication with everybody. So naturally, things will happen, and we just had faith that nothing else was going to happen that would have stepped on our toes, and thankfully no one did. But man, what we were able to come up with and what we were able to do, I couldn’t have done that with anybody. There were so many other alternative options for that main event than what it could have been. But I knew if this was my moment, I didn’t want to read anybody else’s script. I wanted it to be myself and Kenny. I really wanted that.”

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about his special entrance for his match against Omega at All In 2026.

“It was obviously helped a lot. Mike Mansury, he’s one of the lead producers for AEW, so he helped come up with it. But my whole thing was I remember last year at Forbidden Door when I went in the steel cage match, and I was trying to think of a real cool entrance for that. I was just like, I’d love it if I could do something there. But I had no idea that Al [Alex Windsor] put down a voiceover for that entrance. It stuck with me because it was scary going into a steel cage match, knowing that I needed neck surgery, and I was just so worried. I kept a real straight face with people, and I was confident in a lot of the things that I was doing in there, but then hearing Al’s voice come through- the line that got me was, ‘If you’re not afraid of what’s next, neither am I.’ It hit me so hard. It made me just feel like I could run through a wall. Then to have that feeling, I was just kind of like, I want my mum to do my next one, just because my mum has seen me grow up through a TV screen. When I was 22 years old, I got signed to New Japan, and although I kept coming back to England, and I get those tours, but a lot of it was like downtime and rest because I was so battered and hurt. I think it was just one of these things where I’d love to show my mum how much she really meant to me, and I’d love to have had her do the voiceover for one of the biggest nights of my life,” he said.

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about his conversation with his mother to get her to do the voiceover for his entrance.

“We were in Orlando, and I said, ‘Mom, I’ve got like a proposition for you. Do you remember the one that Al did for me? I’d like you to do one for me.’ She was just like, ‘I’ll do it now.’ Then she started writing it up. I said, ‘I don’t want to hear it until the night.’”

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about how he made a minor change to his entrance after hearing it before he walked out to the ring for his match.

“So I heard it the night of, and there were elements of it where I was kind of like, okay. My mom’s very theater, so she very much pronounces everything that she says, and she treats it like a town hall meeting, and I had to try and tell her, ‘Hey, just rein it back a little bit. I don’t want you talking to everybody. You’re not at town hall. You’re talking to your son.’ She did it again. It was spot on, perfect.”

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about how he wanted to use another song for his entrance for his match but AEW was unable to get the license to use it leading to him using “Baba O’Riley” by The Who instead.

“There was a song that we wanted, but we just couldn’t get a license fee for it. I won’t put it out there because maybe one of these days I will be able to track it down again. I’d like to leave that as a surprise. But it was Mike Mansury that came up with the idea of The Who ‘Baba O’Riley.’ I’ll be honest with you, I have a connection with that song because there was a music video from the MV Zone. It was like a kind of little backyard wrestling music video group, and they did a Bryan Danielson tribute to that song, so I have a little bit of a connection to it. I was just okay, I quite like the idea and The Who is British as well, so that’s kind of cool. But I remember listening to it and on the travels that me and Al did, and I was just like, I don’t know if I feel it. The other song that I wanted got my juices flowing. It was my favorite song. I don’t know if I feel it. It was only when I heard the voiceover and I saw the clips that were all around it. I was like, this is perfect. This is it. Don’t change a thing.”

Omega also gave his thoughts about his mindset ahead of his match against Omega and how he was terrified at the possibility of being booed by the crowd.

“Honestly, the week leading up to it was so stressful, and I kept doubting myself, because there were little hiccups in the road where I felt like I’d almost done an own goal with some of the storytelling leading up to it. I just started doubting myself, and there were so many little hiccups along the way. There was a promo that I’d done in Glasgow, and it was the Dynamite right before All In. They were like, ‘You need to go out there and cut a promo.’ Just before they started doing it, they started doing the ‘What do you think of this wrestler?’ Yay! ‘What do you think of this wrestler?’ Yay! And they said Ospreay, and I’m not even joking, I heard boos, and I had a genuine moment backstage.

I looked at Ben Foster, who’s the photographer, because he was getting some candid photos, and I heard that, and there was a genuine moment of are they gonna boo me? Because once again, between England and Scotland, there is heat. But I’ve never said that I’m an English wrestler. I’ve always said I’m a British wrestler, but there is always heat in terms of that type of country. Just before my music, I was like, ‘Please don’t boo, please don’t boo’ because I generally think I would have just switched it and I probably would have lent more bad guy, but then thankfully they cheered and we just ended up riffing between us, but it still wasn’t one of my best promos.” 

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about him kicking out of Omega’s One-Winged Angel move and how it felt like one of the biggest honors for him due to the significance of the rarity of it happening in Omega’s matches.

“Yeah, we labeled it Plan B because our Plan A got ruined because somebody done it in their match. So Plan B was One Wing Angel, kick out at one, Stormbreaker, kick out at one, then finish. I was proud of that one, but being honest, the thing that will never leave me ever. Kenny allowing me to kick out of the One Wing Angel.

The significance and the importance behind that move cannot be understated. He has protected that move for 14 years. The only person to ever kick out of it was (Kota) Ibushi, who was his long-time tag partner. The fact that he allowed me, and you think about the historical feuds that he’s had: Okada, Tana, Ibushi, Hangman, and he saved it for me. That’s one of the biggest honors and the biggest accomplishments I think I’ve ever been given as a performer, as a wrestler.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1, 2, & 3, F4WOnline.com 1 & 2