Fresh off winning the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Will Ospreay is calling out some of the biggest names both in and out of the wrestling business. During a press conference on Monday, Ospreay openly challenged former WWE Champions CM Punk and Drew McIntyre. Back in early 2020 Punk appeared on the Swing & Mrs. podcast and specifically named Ospreay as someone he’d be willing to step back inside the ring with.
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“For people I haven’t ever wrestled before, I think Will Ospreay, I would listen to your idea,” Punk said at the time. “There’s a lot of moving parts. I’m busy doing other stuff and nobody has found the right combination of ways to approach me.”
Ospreay wasted no time in trying to book himself vs. Punk at Wrestle Kingdom 15, though nothing ever materialized.
“Before I was champion, a man who sparked a whole lot of interest in pro-wrestling, CM Punk said he’d like to face Will Ospreay,” Ospreay said via New Japan’s official website. “Now I have the biggest prize in pro-wrestling, so if you really want to prove you were the best in the world and not the best of a bad bunch, come over here and try and take this.”
Ospreay also mentioned McIntyre, who became the first British world champion in WWE history at WrestleMania 36 last April.
“I firmly believe I am the best British wrestler of all time,” Ospreay said. “There is not a single British wrestler that has ever ventured to Japan and climbed to the top of the mountain. Dynamite Kid, British Bulldog, didn’t get to the top of the mountain. Pete Dunne, great wrestler, didn’t come close. I can name a bunch of British wrestlers who didn’t do what I have done. But I would like to test myself against another British wrestler that calls himself the best. A man that held the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Drew McIntyre, he called himself the best British wrestler that ever lived, so if there was ever a chance that we could work out the visas, I’d love IWGP World Heavyweight Champion vs WWE Champion between two British wrestlers.”
Whether these comments will amount to any sort of match remains to be seen. Ospreay will make his first title defense against Shingo Takagi at Wrestling Dontaku 2021 on May 4. The winner will face Kazuchika Okada at the Wrestle Grand Slam event at the Tokyo Dome on May 29.
