AEW star Will Ospreay’s comments are getting out of hand and the star seems to have forgotten the basics of PR.
Will Ospreay is set to headline AEW All In at Wembley Stadium in his home country in about three days’ time, but the star has blundered one interview after the other, and has given the promotion plenty of headaches. Ospreay’s stocks within All Elite Wrestling have never been higher with him easily being the biggest babyface in the promotion, but it’s clear the face of the company has gotten zero media or PR training.
Will Ospreay Talks Trash About WWE And The Rock
Talking on the media interviews before All In, the AEW star has dissed out a number of controversial comments.
First he talked about how WWE’s style of wrestling was ‘minimalist’ and did not resonate with him while company clearly did not cater to his taste. It was a comment that stemmed out of a question from Ariel Helwani on WWE and Triple H wanting to sign. Remember that at one point, things got really close between Ospreay and WWE, before the idea of travelling too much and having to work a lot of dates seemingly did not sit well with the Brit. He then took shots at Hunter during an edition of Dynamite, although, the shots had first come from the other side.
“I do respect them. I just don’t like the way it’s filmed. I don’t like the wrestling behind it. I think it’s very minimalistic. I like to feel alive when I do my pro wrestling.”
It’s wild to think that Ospreay has the galls to say he doesn’t like the way WWE is filmed because their production quality is far better than that of AEW, it is adept at hiding the nuances of wrestling, and can bring out the best of every superstar.
When Helwani questions him further on what he means by being minimalistic, Ospreay says that “one spear” could be a big thing for them in WWE. Yes, because it’s kind of what a ‘finisher’ in wrestling terminology means. It’s a protected move that is supposed to signal the end of the match and whoever can hit their finisher wins. This is Hulk Hogan’s leg drop, John Cena’s AA, Sting’s Scorpion Drop, Stone Cold’s Stunner, and The Undertaker’s Tombstone were so devastating, so lethal, so poisonous, so you knew as fans that once it was hit, it was over.
Even Kenny Omega has managed to protect his One Winged Angel and everytime he hits it, it feels like a big move that carries a lot of significance. Ospreay’s hidden blade on the other hand is a move that’s used at least thrice in a match, sometimes even on lame TV matches that have no consequence in the greater storyline whatsoever.
Now, Ospreay has gone one step further and called out The Rock. He states that Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has never main evented in a sold out Wembley Stadium. At the peak of his career, The Rock was an untouchable icon in the wrestling business whose business acumen and flair for the game was second to none. Ospreay has yet to reach that iconic level, whether he does or not is not the point of this article.
However, his needless jab has now opened up a completely new discourse which ultimately takes the conversation away from AEW All In, the main focus of aforementioned interview. It’s sad to think that someone with so much talent and potential is reducing himself to deliberately redirect conversations and stir fan rage without standing to gain anything from it.
Ospreay is an exceptionally talented wrestler, who can cut decent promos, albeit occasionally, but now, he is coming off as the guy who is just salty at the ‘other’ company and letting his frustations out at every opportunity he gets.
Does that mean he is talking absolute rubbish and making no sense at all? No, that’s not the case, he makes some valid points and has a clear conscience about the kind of wrestler he wants to become. But at this point in his career when the biggest opportunity of a lifetime presents itself at Wembley Stadium in front of over 40,000 fans, the best practice would be to shut up.
