Swerve Strickland handed Will Ospreay his first singles loss inside an AEW ring at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door. The AEW World Champion retained his title against the AEW International Champion in a 27-minute hard-hitting affair, landing a Hidden Blade of his own before striking Big Pressure to pick up the 1-2-3. This victory represented Swerve’s biggest defense of his title reign so far, as the surging Ospreay was considered a decent favorite to dethrone him going into the pay-per-view, especially with AEW ALL IN: London, a stadium show in Ospreay’s home country, on the horizon.
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Will Ospreay Pushed For Swerve Strickland Victory Before ALL IN
The Aerial Assassin had false narratives on his hit list going into the summer.
As reported by Fightful Select, Will Ospreay pushed to put over AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland before AEW ALL IN: London in August. Ospreay and Swerve are close friends in real life, and Ospreay had reportedly grown tired of the narrative that Swerve’s title reign was a “placeholder” as AEW waited to crown Ospreay at AEW ALL IN: London. As evident by Swerve defeating Ospreay at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door and Ospreay’s absence in the Owen Hart Cup Tournament, a bracket that will determine Swerve’s challenger at AEW ALL IN: London, Ospreay will not even be competing for that prize at Wembley Stadium.
The report continued that Ospreay personally approached the powers that be in AEW and “extended his desire to put over Swerve” to help squash the “placeholder” narrative. Ospreay is said to already have “big creative plans” throughout the rest of 2024 that exist outside of the AEW World Title scene and he had wanted to “set an example” for the locker room that in order for AEW to succeed, it had to be a “team effort.” Ospreay specifically wanted to show that “nobody should be above losing to the World Champion.” AEW sources have praised Ospreay as being “great to deal with,” citing how he often helps put others’ matches together.
Regarding the idea that Swerve vs. Ospreay was an inevitably for AEW ALL IN: London, sources say that that match “wasn’t ever the plan.” Going into the Wembley Stadium show, Swerve seems poised for a collision with Bryan Danielson while Ospreay is inching towards a clash with MJF.
AEW’s road to AEW ALL IN: London begins this Wednesday on AEW Dynamite.
