Ahead of WrestleMania in Philadelphia, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque promoted the big weekend but not without throwing a few shots at his competitors at AEW. One of those was aimed at Will Ospreay who signed with AEW last November at Full Gear.
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“When I see people trying to make it, and they pick the job where they go, ‘Well, I work less and the schedule’s lighter.’ Okay I’m glad I didn’t get you because if you’re not in it for the grind in that point in your career, you have no business being here.” Before he signed with AEW there were reports that WWE was highly interested in The Aerial Assassin but Ospreay ultimately chose AEW at this stage in his career so he had the flexibility to see his family as often as he’d like.
AEW Dynamite this week addressed a few huge elephants in the room including the shot from Levesque and CM Punk’s comments on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour. While the Young Bucks showed footage from AEW All In of Punk and Jack Perry’s backstage altercation, Ospreay went out on live television to fire back at his critics. “Normally I wouldn’t rise to this type of bait, right? But seeing how the guy who said it Is only in the position because he was grinding the boss’ daughter, you have no business telling me what the grind is all about, my friend. Because you have no idea what I fight for.”
Early Thursday morning, PWTorch’s Wade Keller discussed the two biggest moments out of the show, noting that Ospreay and the Bucks weren’t exactly in favor of participating, and that in Ospreay’s case the idea was presented to him hours ahead of the show. Fightful Select got clarification on the ordeal and after speaking to sources close to Ospreay and the situation, were told it was Ospreay’s idea to do it. He was fine with cutting the promo and it presented no issues. After working with the creative team on it, he ran it by several people backstage. Apparently at one point there was a version of it that included a line about Punk following his comments about Ospreay’s infamous AEW All In tattoo but with the Bucks segment it was viewed as overkill and scrapped.
Ospreay made his huge AEW debut ahead of AEW Revolution in March. On that show he tore the house down with fellow Don Callis Family member Konosuke Takeshita and he’s been on a hot streak ever since. Ospreay is set to go face-to-face with “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson at AEW Dynasty on April 21 in St, Louis, a match that will prove who the best wrestler in the world really is.
What did you make of Ospreay’s comments on AEW Dynamite? Let us know in the comments!
