Will Ospreay isn’t sitting at home studying WWE as AEW’s biggest competition. In fact, he says he hasn’t watched WWE properly in years and still hasn’t seen anything from the most recent WrestleMania.
The subject came up during a conversation with Ariel Helwani after Ospreay explained why WWE’s current presentation and wrestling style don’t appeal to him. Ospreay had criticized the company’s filming, described its matches as minimalistic and pointed to clips where wrestlers appeared to miss strikes by a wide margin. Helwani then asked whether Ospreay regularly watches WWE to keep tabs on AEW’s competition. His answer was an immediate no.
“No. No. I honestly haven’t watched WWE properly in ages. This is how out of the loop I am with WWE.”
Ospreay was even in town for WrestleCon during WrestleMania weekend. WWE’s biggest show was playing on televisions throughout the area and at pool parties, but Ospreay said he managed to avoid watching all of it.
“We were over doing WrestleCon during WrestleMania weekend. Bear in mind, it’s on all the TVs, it’s at all the pool parties, it’s everywhere. I didn’t see one thing.”
Ospreay admitted that his complete lack of interest in watching WrestleMania would have been unthinkable earlier in his life. He used to make the event an annual tradition with his backyard wrestling friends, but that connection is no longer there.
“I still haven’t seen one thing from WrestleMania, which is wild to me because there was once upon a time where me and all my backyard wrestling mates would sit there, and it’d be a spot in April where we’d just sit down and watch WrestleMania.”
“You admire it and you respect it, but I just have not seen anything from Mania. I just see clips that I scroll through on Twitter, like, ‘How do you whiff that?’”
Helwani suggested that Ospreay’s social media algorithm may simply feed him AEW content because that is what he follows. Ospreay pushed back, saying his timeline also includes Japanese wrestling and plenty of football.
“Hardly. There’s the AEW stuff, there’s New Japan stuff, there’s NOAH stuff and a lot of Real Madrid now.”
Ospreay’s lack of interest in WWE isn’t new. Elsewhere in the conversation, he said WWE never inspired him to become a wrestler. He gravitated toward TNA’s X Division, New Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling NOAH and Dragon Gate instead.
He also confirmed that WWE made him an attractive offer before he signed with AEW, but the company wanted him to relocate to the United States. Ospreay refused because he had no desire to move his family away from England.
Ospreay still sees WWE clips while scrolling through social media, but he clearly isn’t watching full shows or studying what the company is doing. His focus remains on AEW, Japanese wrestling and his own work inside the ring.
Are you surprised that Will Ospreay hasn’t watched WWE properly in years or seen the latest Wrestle Mania? Please share your thoughts and feedback in the comment section below.
