AEW President Tony Khan made an unprecedented effort to get Will Ospreay on the books. This past November, it was announced that the Aerial Assassin had inked a contract with AEW, over three months before his then-active contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling expired. NJPW gave Ospreay its blessing to sign with AEW while still on its payroll. This ultimately prevented WWE from ever making a serious pursuit at Ospreay, as he had become #AllElite long before he was due to enter free agency. It’s unclear as to what WWE would have had in store for Ospreay, but the sports-entertainment giant did not take too kindly to missing out on landing the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.
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During WWE WrestleMania 40 week, WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque took a subtle shot at Ospreay, remarking on The Pat McAfee Show that any talent that opts for a “lighter schedule” is “not in it for the grind” and has “no business being [in WWE].” While Ospreay was not named, he had mentioned in previous interviews that he favored AEW as its schedule allowed him to maintain living in the United Kingdom and continue to take care of his partner and his stepson.
Ospreay fired back on a recent AEW Dynamite, joking that Triple H only assumed his current power due to his marriage to Stephanie McMahon.
Will Ospreay Shuts Down Future WWE, Triple H References
The Aerial Assassin is done with the Cerebral Assassin.
Speaking during the AEW Dynasty post-show press conference, Will Ospreay clarified his recent shot at WWE Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque, noting that in the future he will let his work in the ring speak for itself.
“I don’t want to address it anymore. When I grew up, if you throw a jab, I throw one back. Although I wasn’t mentioned by name, it was clearly about me,” Ospreay said. “All due respect, I’m kind of done mentioning anyone over there now. I don’t want to do that anymore because I feel I lowered myself to that standard. I don’t need to do that anymore. Look what I just did in the ring with Bryan Danielson. That’s only match two from pay-per-view. I’ve got a f–kload more to go down.”
While he does not regret what he said, Ospreay admitted he is frustrated that he lowered himself to it.
“With all due respect, if you take everything into consideration, of course I’m annoyed about a jab that I took. I threw one back. I don’t think it was anything bad. It’s a joke from 20 years ago,” Ospreay continued. “That’s the first time I’ve ever experienced true tribalism between the two. It’s not nice. It’s unnecessary. I’m over it. I can’t be bothered with it. I just want to be focused on promoting AEW. I don’t regret what I said. You take the entire thing into consideration, it did p–s me off, but from this day on, I won’t go down that road. I don’t need to. I’m the best wrestler in the world. I don’t need to f–k with guys below me.”
AEW Dynasty 2024 Results
- AEW World Championship: Swerve Strickland def Samoa Joe (c)
- AEW Women’s World Championship: “Timeless” Toni Storm (c) def. Thunder Rosa
- Will Ospreay def. Bryan Danielson
- AEW World Tag Team Championships – Ladder Match: Young Bucks def. FTR
- House of Black def. Adam Copeland, Mark Briscoe, and Eddie Kingston
- AEW International Championship: Roderick Strong (c) def. Kyle O’Reilly
- AEW Continental Crown Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) def. PAC
- TBS Championship: Willow Nightingale def. Julia Hart (c)
- FTW Championship: Chris Jericho def. HOOK (c)
- Orange Cassidy and Katsuyori Shibata def. Shane Taylor and Lee Moriarty
- Trent Berretta def. Matt Sydal
- Winner Takes All: ROH Six-Man Champions Bullet Club Gold def. AEW Trios Champions The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn
