Will Ospreay’s massive AEW All In entrance wasn’t thrown together at the last minute. Tony Khan and Ospreay were both heavily involved in creating the emotional Wembley Stadium presentation,.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Meltzer compared Ospreay’s entrance to famous walkouts involving Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Terry Funk. Those entrances had legendary crowd reactions, but Meltzer said what AEW built around Ospreay was on another emotional level.
“But I mean, like, I mean, I will say that as much as I’ve seen, you know, as far as you’re just talking, like, even at a house show at the Cow Palace, Hulk Hogan coming out, you know, even more than Austin, but Hogan and Austin just coming out, you know. But, but that’s not like a video presentation in the whole thing. That’s, that’s just like coming out and all that for just like the walkout and, and. And I don’t know. I mean, I mean, some of the WrestleMania ones, when you have like the music and everything, but I can’t, like, you know, I mean, there’s famous ones and there are elaborate ones and all that, but I, I don’t think that any of them hit the emotional level that this one did.”
The video was a huge part of that. Ospreay’s wrestling history was laid out in front of Wembley, with people from different stages of his career appearing throughout the package. Meltzer specifically pointed to Ricochet, Zack Sabre Jr., Michael Oku, Jon Moxley and Alex Windsor as pieces that helped make the whole thing land.
“I think that the, the video work that everyone in AEW, you know, Mike Mansury and, and others who he’s credited, who we’ve mentioned that, that with the, the video that they did with, with Sue Osprey and, you know, the, the guys, you know, when, when you had every one of them, when you see Ricochet, you know, like when you see his guys. It’s like okay, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s that. But when you saw, to me when you saw like Ozzy open and Ricochet and Zach and Michael Oku and it’s kind of like and, and Moxley more than any of them, right? And then Alex Windsor at the end, I just thought that it was like it set a stage and you know like they had to live up to that stage.”
The entrance was so big that Meltzer felt Ospreay and Kenny Omega suddenly had another problem on their hands — actually delivering a match worthy of what fans had just watched.
“I mean, you know, I mean to live up to that entrance and then the Kenny entrance was, was, was, was great too.”
Then came the key detail about who was pulling the strings. Meltzer said Khan was deeply involved in creating the entrance alongside Ospreay, meaning the AEW boss had a direct hand in one of the most emotional pieces of the entire All In presentation.
“Yeah. Tony Khan was, was also very instrumental along with Will in, in coming that.”
They also weren’t afraid to mess with normal wrestling logic to make it work. Kyle Fletcher, Mark Davis and Ricochet were included despite their complicated history with Ospreay, including rivalries that would normally make them showing support look strange within the weekly AEW storyline. Meltzer said that was intentional, pointing out that Ricochet technically shouldn’t have been wishing Ospreay well based on where their characters stood.
“But with the, the breaking of the kayfabe by putting you know, Kyle Fletcher and Mark Davis there, you know and, and like Ricochet wishing him well, you know, even though that they’re rivals and in AEW story Ricochet should not have done that. You could argue if Moxley should have done that. You know, although Moxley Ospreay story is very complicated.”
That decision led Meltzer into a bigger comparison between Khan and Vince McMahon. In his view, the entrance showed just how different their booking philosophies are because AEW was willing to acknowledge Ospreay’s history outside the company and temporarily blur current heel and babyface lines to make the moment stronger.
“You could not have two more opposite people when it comes to the theory of wrestling booking than Tony Khan and Vince McMahon.”
Meltzer said McMahon would have likely rejected many of those choices, while Khan leaned straight into them because the goal was to reward the fans who knew Ospreay’s complete story.
“Vince would. He nicks every one of those things. And Tony went with every one of them because it’s like he’s, he’s trying to create the, the deepest moment for the moments for the people who paid the most attention.”
And judging by the reaction Meltzer has seen, Khan and Ospreay got exactly what they wanted. He said some people have gone back repeatedly just to watch the entrance again — not even the match.
“I have talked to people who have watched that entrance, like, 10, 15 times. Not the match 10, 15 times, just the entrance over and over and over again. And they say it gets better every time. I’ve watched it twice, and it was better the second time.”
Ospreay was the man walking into Wembley, but he wasn’t the only one responsible for making the moment work. Khan and Ospreay helped build the concept, AEW’s production team brought it to life, and they were willing to ignore a few wrestling rules along the way to make sure the entrance hit as hard as possible.
What did you think of Will Ospreay’s All In entrance, and did Tony Khan and AEW make the right call by bending storyline logic to make the moment bigger? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.
