Will Ospreay was staring down neck surgery and had no idea what his wrestling future would look like, but one personal message from his wife, Alex Windsor, changed everything. The AEW star revealed that Windsor secretly recorded a voice-over that played before he entered a steel cage at London’s O2 Arena, giving him exactly what he needed during one of the scariest moments of his career.
During a conversation with SHAK Wrestling, Ospreay explained that he did not even know he needed surgery until after that year’s All In. His surgeon allowed him to wrestle one final match, but only under strict conditions that limited what he could do inside the ring. Ospreay admitted that those restrictions left him extremely nervous before the match.
“I can’t tell you enough how scared I was going into that last match because beforehand, I didn’t know I needed surgery. I didn’t know that I needed any of that. I found out that I needed surgery after that year’s All In.”
The decision to wrestle was not made lightly. Ospreay said his surgeon cleared him for one final appearance as long as he followed a specific set of rules.
“It was kind of a decision where my surgeon said, ‘You can do one last match, but it has to be under these circumstances. You can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ That was the first time I had worked with a lot of restrictions.”
Then came the surprise. Just before Ospreay walked out in front of approximately 20,000 fans, Windsor’s voice played throughout the arena. Ospreay had no clue she had recorded anything, and the personal message instantly gave him another gear.
“To go into that with all those nerves, and just before I went out there to 20,000 people in the O2 Arena, to hear my wife do a voice-over that I had no idea that she was doing—that’s honestly enough to let me run through a f***ing wall, mate, let alone a steel cage.”
The message also changed how Ospreay viewed the surgery waiting for him. Instead of worrying about facing the recovery alone, he knew Windsor would be there through every difficult step.
“In that moment, it was such a beautiful moment to know that I have someone there that’s always going to have my back, that is always going to look after me. I’m not afraid of this surgery because I know that I’m going to have her by my side.”
Windsor’s surprise was much more than part of Ospreay’s entrance. It reached him at the exact moment he needed it and gave him the confidence to face both the steel cage and the surgery that followed.
What did you think about Alex Windsor’s personal message helping Will Ospreay through one of the toughest moments of his career? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
