The man largely thought of as one of, if not the best wrestlers in the world has claimed he wants to tag team with a British icon . . . and it’s not who you might think.
Will Ospreay has been making headlines all year since joining All Elite Wrestling, and he is set to take to Wembley Stadium next month in front of around 80k fans to make more headlines.
And ahead of the company’s return to the home of football, Ospraey sat down with the Daily Star’s Danny Stone for an in-depth chat about his career, future hopes and . . . why Elton John is his ideal tag team partner.
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(Image: All Elite Wrestling)
And of course, he said “bruv” a lot.
AEW is coming back to Wembey, is there anything that happened last time, or that you learned which will inform what you will do this time?
That’s such a good question. I haven’t even thought that. Because those moments when I was walking out and I was wrestling Jericho, I was just blocking everything out, focussed on the match. There were points when I was able to take it in. Like when I walked down and saw fireworks over my head. It didn’t seem real. Im a long way away from what I was doing in the backyard. Id have to really sit down and think if there was anything I could have done more. Could I have engaged the crowd more. An arena, compared to a stadium, are two different things. So that’s the difficult task, engaging the whole stadium.
You paid tribute to all of the independent promotions that you had worked with, on your sleeve, on your ring gear last year at Wembley. Was that important to you, to mark your passage and if so, how might we see you mark it at Wembley this year?
I’ve done it now, and that jacket is at my house. It’s going to stay there now. I’m always going to have that jacket. But it was super important for me to remind everybody that they were the building blocks to help manufacture this scene and to create me. All of them. Even promotions that I have a lot of gripes with nowadays. We’re not on good, even speaking terms, but they still played a part in my growth. I’m very passionate about our country’s wrestling scene. I’ve been a part of it since I debuted in 2012. Even now, I still do work with Pro-Wrestling Eve as a producer. I have a passion for it and I love being a part of my country. I love being a part of the scene and it’s so important to mark those little steps of my journey because it’s what shaped me to be in this moment right here.
(Image: PA)
You’ve been a part of numerous locker rooms; indie locker rooms, Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. What sets the AEW locker room apart from the others that you’ve been in?
From the top of the card to the bottom of the card, every single wrestler is what they say they are. They are elite. They all have their own individual claims to being the best in the world. Whether that’s a tag team, women’s wrestler, singles wrestler, six-man wrestlers – there are so many wise heads that have seen every landscape of what professional wrestling is. Sting literally just retired, man. That’s a whole era of wrestling. He has seen the wars between WCW and WWF, he’s seen the TNA age. He’s seen stuff over in Japan – there’s not just him, he’s a good example but there are so many visions of what professional wrestling could be and the handcuffs are off to tell those stories how we see fit.
That’s happening at the moment. You’ve got a lot a lot of crossover between different companies. Is there anyone out there in any sphere that you’d like to bring to AEW to face?
Ricochet is the main one, and I think that’s just because of the history. I’ve been shouting his name out for years now. I’ve always said the reason why I got so good is because Ricochet helped me out. He’s like my best friend. It just seems to be the timing is very strange. This time, now that I’m shouting him out, his contract appears to be expiring. I can say, I’m saying this to everyone, we haven’t talked. Every now and again we’ll text but it’s no conversation. I genuinely don’t know if he’s allowing his contract to be done. I don’t know if he’s going to re-sign. I could be shouting this out, and he could still be going back to WWE for all we know, right? But I feel like he owes it to himself to at least try it.
(Image: All Elite Wrestling)
Funny little story. When Ricochet left for WWE years ago, the Young Bucks were trying to tell him, “do some Ring of Honor before you go, just even if it’s for a year”. “NXT’s still gonna be there”. He said, “I wanna do this because my mom’s always wanted to see me in WWE”. I always commended him for that, I always wished him the best. You did it. You’ve done it now. Is there anything more you wanna hit there? I mean, if so, I don’t know if the passage is going to be open for you. You’re still young, still healthy, can still do all the same tricks. I can’t! I can’t do it anymore. So, just remind people, man, because at one point, you were the game changer. You were. People like Dante Martin, myself, and Lio Rush, all these high flyers. Dude, you’re the guy. You are the guy. So, if he stays, I’m happy for him but if there is that slight chance just for him to remind people why he was one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, times now.
You say Ricochet is one of the greatest but you have been dubbed the best in the world. Does that feel like a burden, does it weigh heavy on your shoulders?
It’s starting to now. I won’t lie. the toll it takes now, weekly as well, to try and remind people over and over again that there are levels to this. My time spent in Japan, in England, in Australia, all over Europe, in America as well, all I’ve done is knocked on the guy’s door politely, whatever country I’m in, I’ve knocked on the guy’s door. I’ve said, who’s the toughest guy? And I whooped them in front of their mum and their dad. That’s the thing. From there, it’s just the case that I am confident in my wrestling abilities. I am confident when I say I’m the greatest wrestler of the 21st century. I am confident when I say I’m the best wrestler in the world right now. But it does come with a price. I have to change constantly. I have to adapt. My mind is under constant stress all the time that I don’t really cope well with. Just because the cameras aren’t on me, I don’t really cope well with it. But I have to because it’s a part of a responsibility and I want to prove it to myself. All those years that I was wrestling in a back garden with my closest friends, who all gave it up because the wrestling wasn’t going to be their end game, I stuck with this, so I owe it to myself to just keep going and see how far I can take it. The moment that the smile starts coming off my face, then that’s when I can say, all right, someone else have a go.
Is there a magic ingredient? Do you think you could teach someone else to be the best in the world? Do you have a special insight?
I feel like I’ve helped a lot of people just by wrestling them. My prime example would be Michael Oku. My series with him with at RevPro [Revolution Pro Wresting]. It was only meant to be a one match thing, we turned that into a 28 minute – nearly hit the 30 minute mark. Then we had the 40-minute epic clash at York Hall where people saw the vanilla side of me come out . They saw this underdog babyface really take it to one of the gatekeepers of British wrestling. Then on the third bout, I don’t think I’ve ever put a performance like that on.
I don’t know, I could argue the Takeshita one, I could argue a lot the Bryan Danielson one, but that match with Michael, I feel that elevated him and that’s just from us just collaborating, but testing one another. Asking why should we do this here? Why should this mean more? There are a lot of people that I’ve helped quietly that are now seeing the light come through, and they’re becoming more well-versed professional wrestlers. I do think there is a way of teaching people how to be at this level. I really do. But I’m not ready to teach everybody all the tricks yet. I’ve still got five, six, seven years of being the top guy, man. So I want to enjoy that. And I want to see if anyone’s actually got the gall to knock me off the mountain.
Something you do in your matches is have fun. A dance break in WXW’s 16 Carat tournament, cheeky quips at the New Japan/RevPro Crystal Palace show. Is it important to you be able to bring humour to the ring, and not take everything too seriously?
I think it’s the art of it, right? Just because the moment you start taking this too seriously, you become one of the people that aren’t looked upon very favourably in professional wrestling. The one thing that I’ve always wanted to do in wrestling is, I’ve just wanted to have fun with it. And my legacy to the fans will be what it will be. What I want is my legacy to the boys and girls that knew me behind the curtain, I want people to have thought Bill’s an idiot, but he’s got a good heart. That’s all I want.
Interviewing you at an independent show nearly a decade ago, you told me that NXT was the ambition, your dream. That doesn’t appear to be what you want now. Has the scene changed – with the introduction of AEW – or have you changed?
I have changed, like, dramatically. I’ll be honest with you, even saying that doesn’t sound like me at all. I never had that ambition to uproot my life because I am very much a home guy, like to see my mum and dad all the time. I have a connection with this country where I just enjoy it. I’ve spent time in Japan. I’ve lived in Japan for two years and there’s still a real connection here. Maybe back then, they were doing something groundbreaking and revolutionary, right? No-one had seen an NXT before. It was in front of, what, like 300 people in a studio, right? It was taking people, almost like a dream list of indie guys – Pac, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, the list goes on and on, right? My ambition in life was to go to Japan. I wanted to go there and see that and to see my taste of wrestling actually is. My taste of wrestling is Japan. I enjoy that style. I enjoy their environment. I enjoy the structure. I enjoy not just the matches, the structure in terms of business. I saw that and thought to myself, I don’t think I could ever go over there because it is so full on and I love doing this wrestling, I love doing this style wrestling, but I also like to take a break and be with my family.
So I came to the assumption that that was never ever gonna be me very, very quickly. It’s only since AEW has come in, I do think the game has changed a little bit. Now there are two sides for the first time in God knows however many long years. There’s two sides, so now it takes a lot for independent talent to really rise up. You have to be very special now because nowadays, if one person leaves a company, they’ve got two others to go to now. So now, starting from a lower rank on the indies, it’s going to be so much harder for people to get signed and to get work because why should they sign lower level indie talent when we have this guy that’s just come over from here or there? So it is very difficult, but it is achievable because I’ve seen people do it. And I think a lot of it is about just going out and testing yourself. A lot of people just want to remain in their little bubble, man. A lot of people do just want to stay doing the same old indies and expect someone to come to them. You’ve got to go out and experience the world. I got very lucky. Some other people aren’t very lucky. There’s nothing more common in life than undiscovered talent.
Last time around at Wembley the matches weren’t announced until quite late in the day. Are there any matches that you’d like to see at All In that haven’t been announced?
If I could, if it’s me versus Bryan Danielson, AEW world title, and this time he’s coming out to final countdown. To look him in the eyes and just actually sing the lyrics back to him and go, it’s the final countdown, son. Like, oh, mate. The storytelling in that is perfect.
For someone dubbed the Best in the World, you seem very grounded. You’re also in tune, or plugged in to the fans. You picked up on internet trends. Is that important to you, remaining grounded and not getting carried away with it?
I mean, plugged in is different, right? So plugged in means I’m spending too much time on the internet! So there’s that. My mum has done a terrific job in raising a good boy. A lot of that is remaining humble, realising where you come from, grassroots and all of that. But sometimes you’ve just got to say ‘no, I am doing it different to what a lot of people are doing’. You could see the influence that I’ve had in a lot of wrestling matches these days. Like, I remember people coming back from WrestleMania weekend and telling me about the number of people that were doing the Ozcutter. It makes me so happy that I’ve got some type of influence there because AJ was that for me, and I got to wrestle AJ once upon a time. I got to a wrestle Nick Wayne, and he told me that he got into wrestling because of me and Ricochet.
(Image: Getty Images for the Stonewall N)
Stuff like that always makes my heart soar, man. But I always remember, for me , I just love wrestling. I love it more than anything in the world. I really enjoy myself. The main thing is, it’s not life. It’s not life. I’ve always learnt this is the business side of things, and you love the business. This is great, but the moment that you walk through that curtain, it’s an opportunity to learn, it’s an opportunity to get better, and more importantly, it’s an opportunity to be a better parent, a better man to my a missus, a better family man. So they’re the most important things in life, really. Five-star matches are good, everyone loves a compliment, don’t they? But going backstage and if my mum goes, you’ve done a really good match, that means more.
You’ve also changed your finisher over time as well. Was that important to you, to diversify and be creative? Or do you wish you’d stuck with one of your original moves?
For me, wrestling is about evolving. When you had your Pokemon Red or Pokemon Blue, right? When you got Bulbasaur, because, admit it you wanted Bulbasaur. Charmander was cool, so was Squirtle, but Bulbasaur was the one you wanted, right? When it was time to evolve, you didn’t press B, did you? You pressed evolve. You wanted to see your Pokemon evolve. That’s all I’m saying. And I think that’s the same with wrestling. It’s just after a while, certain moves will lose their flair and the flavor behind it. Some are timeless. The Rock Bottom, the People’s Elbow, the Stone Cold Stunner, the Pedigree. Certain moves are timeless.
But I think we live in an era now where we’re intelligent enough to know that sports have come so much more further. So matches can end in certain ways. Matches can be more devastating or quick or end with a submission. I’ve always tried to enhance my move set by like adding something that people maybe have seen before or maybe they haven’t seen for years, which is why I brought back the Tiger Driver, a move that a lot of people like shied away from. I brought it back and admittedly, to a little bit of a detriment because of how it’s now become, but it was me being daring enough to show people that I was willing to go those extra miles. They’re amazing. I really enjoy all of them.
Finally, if you could pick any British legend from popular culture from any era to face at Wembley, who are you going to fight?
Oh, to fight? Can I be in a tag match with him instead? I was going to say Elton John. I need the hot tag from Elton John, man. I’ll go in there with him, bruv. He’s one of my favourite artists of all time. I love him. He’s the best. Yeah, man, I’ll come out looking as flamboyant as him. Coming down to Saturday [Night’s alright for fighting].
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