Will Ospreay is challenging for his first AEW title. This Sunday at AEW Double or Nothing, the Aerial Assassin faces AEW International Champion Roderick Strong with his gold on the line. The prize is new to Ospreay, but the prize holder is not. Back in 2015 when he was just three years into his wrestling career, a young Ospreay faced Strong in a singles capacity twice on the British independent circuit. While the record books show wins for Ospreay in both matches against the Undisputed Kingdom member, he doesn’t feel like the victories were definitive enough.
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“I still feel like I was learning the trade,” Ospreay reflected to ComicBook about his in-ring history with Strong. “If you watched those matches, I didn’t win the match, I just survived it personally. Now is the point where I’m a fully grown man. I have all these accolades under my belt. Roderick is without doubt one of the best wrestlers in the world today. He’s a Ring of Honor legend, he’s a wrestling legend, and he’s now entering this new stratosphere of who he is as a professional wrestler. Now finally I feel like I’m at my peak and he’s at his peak, and we’re going to probably put on one of the best matches on that card.”
The setting for Ospreay and Strong’s renewed rivalry is AEW Double or Nothing, the pay-per-view that served as AEW’s pilot episode back in 2019. In another timeline, Ospreay could have been on that inaugural show.
“I think I was in Japan for the Best of the Super Juniors. I was in the processes of sorting out my apartment and moving over to Japan. Tony Khan, back in February of 2019, came to York Hall for a Revolution Pro Wrestling show where I faced Pac in the only match that we’ve ever done, a 30-minute time limit draw. Tony came backstage to ask how I’d feel about doing, even if it was just dream matches for AEW. I just said that with all due respect, I just want to focus on New Japan right now because I feel like I’m really starting to understand the Japanese style of wrestling and I still felt like I was learning the trade. I wasn’t rude, I just said, ‘I want you to do your own thing, but I want to do my thing first and I’m going to be supporting on the sidelines.’ I’ve supported ever since.”
AEW Double or Nothing goes down on Sunday, May 26th at 8 PM ET and is available to watch on various pay-per-view platforms.
AEW Double or Nothing Card
- AEW World Championship: Swerve Strickland (c) vs. Christian Cage
- AEW TBS Championship: Willow Nightingale (c) vs. Mercedes Moné
- Anarchy in the Arena: The Elite (The Young Bucks, Kazuchika Okada, Jack Perry) vs. Team AEW (FTR, Bryan Danielson, Darby Allin)
- AEW TNT Championship – Barbed Wire Cage Match: Adam Copeland (c) vs. Malakai Black
- AEW Women’s Championship: “Timeless” Toni Storm (c) vs. Serena Deeb
- AEW International Championship: Roderick Strong (c) vs. Will Ospreay
- Unified Trios Championships: Bullet Club Gold (c) vs. Death Triangle
- FTW Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs. HOOK vs. Katsuyori Shibata
- Trent Beretta vs. Orange Cassidy
- IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Eliminator Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita
