Will Ospreay had WWE calling, the Cruiserweight Classic on the table and a chance to join the hottest version of NXT. He still walked away.
Speaking on Marking Out with MVP, Ospreay revealed why he turned down WWE’s offer to compete in the Cruiserweight Classic, saying New Japan had always been his dream—and once the opportunity finally arrived, he wasn’t about to split his focus.
“Then WWE called me and they wanted me to be part of the Cruiserweight Classic… I’ve got to weigh all my options because now I had TNA, which was nowhere near an option for me at the time, New Japan, which I really, really wanted to do because that was the only thing I ever wanted to do, and obviously WWE.”
Ironically, the whole thing started because of one match. At just 22 years old, Ospreay wrestled Kazuchika Okada for RevPro in England, knowing several of New Japan’s biggest decision-makers were watching from ringside and backstage. When the match was over, everything changed.
“When I was 22, I wrestled Okada in England for RevPro… Gedo was managing him, Tiger Hattori was in the stands watching, and I had Hiroshi Tanahashi behind the curtain watching. By the time I was done… Hattori came and was like, ‘Hey man… you’re good. We’re bringing you for the Super Juniors.’ At the time, that was the craziest thing for me.”
Not long after, WWE came calling. The Cruiserweight Classic was one of the company’s biggest projects at the time, while NXT’s black-and-gold era was taking off. Ospreay admitted it was tempting, especially seeing names like Finn Bálor, AJ Styles, Shinsuke Nakamura, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows all make the jump.
But he also noticed something else. New Japan was creating stars before they ever got to WWE, and Ospreay wanted to become one of them first.
“I remember saying to my mum, all the guys that have gone there have come from here, and their stock has gone up because they’ve gone here, because New Japan was so hot at the time.”
So instead of accepting WWE’s invitation, Ospreay made a surprising request to New Japan. He asked them to lock him down full-time.
“I politely declined the offer to be part of the Cruiserweight Classic, and I said to New Japan if I could be a part of them more than just being in the Super Juniors. They sat me down and they said, ‘You know, you can do WWE as well. You’re not locked down.’ And I went, ‘Well, I want to be locked down. This is where I want to be.'”
That decision changed his life. Ospreay spent the next eight years in Japan, moving halfway across the world as a 22-year-old who barely spoke the language and suddenly had to figure everything out on his own.
“Then they gave me a contract deal, and I spent eight years of my life there… I’d never left England that much… Then all of a sudden they just threw me in the deep end in Japan. I was literally by myself in this country that I couldn’t even speak the language in, furiously trying to follow Google Maps trying to find the nearest McDonald’s. But it was honestly the thing that made me a man… I can’t tell you enough—I love that country so much.”
Instead of taking the WWE opportunity that so many wrestlers spend their careers chasing, Ospreay bet on himself, chose New Japan and ended up spending nearly a decade becoming one of the world’s biggest wrestling stars before eventually making his way to AEW.
Do you think Will Ospreay made the right decision by turning down WWE in favor of New Japan? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
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