Will Ospreay had an opportunity to join WWE long before becoming one of AEW’s biggest stars, but there was one pretty obvious problem. WWE simply wasn’t offering enough money to convince him to leave Japan.
While peaking to Ariel Helwani, Will Ospreay revealed that WWE approached him about competing in the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic and offered him a deal. However, he realized the money WWE was offering was terrible.
“I received an offer in 2016 to be part of the Cruiserweight Classic, and I think they saw that there was a video of me fighting in New Japan, and they offered me a deal to sign there. But the money was terrible. Like, it was bad. I was making more money in NJPW.”
Ospreay hadn’t even gone into New Japan expecting to receive a contract. Once that offer arrived, however, comparing the two opportunities made his decision considerably easier.
“I didn’t even know I was gonna get an offer from Japan. After I signed my deal, it was like comparing the two. It was like, ‘How am I making more money here?’”
The money wasn’t the only reason WWE never really appealed to him. Ospreay grew up watching WWE, but the company’s presentation eventually stopped clicking with him. Instead, he found himself drawn toward TNA’s X-Division and Japanese promotions such as Pro Wrestling NOAH, Dragon Gate and New Japan.
“After that, it just wasn’t for me. I didn’t like it. I didn’t like the presentation behind it. I still have those feelings now. But I found TNA, and I feel like that was a style that spoke to me. The X-Division was huge for me.”
That eventually shaped the kind of wrestler Ospreay wanted to become. Even when people around him treated WWE as the obvious destination, he was thinking about something completely different. Ospreay wanted the six-sided ring and Japan instead.
“WWE has never really driven me. When you first get into the industry and first start learning, even in the schools, we had a guy that got signed to WWE. He never ended up going in the end because of heart conditions, but they were just always telling you, ‘WWE is the route. WWE is the route.’ Meanwhile, I was like, ‘Yeah, I like to wrestle in a six-sided ring, go to Japan, and learn strong style.’ So that’s why I’ve never been a WWE guy.”
Ospreay acknowledged that taking WWE’s offer could eventually have resulted in considerably more money, especially once 205 Live came along. He just never saw enough there to abandon the path he actually wanted.
“Of course, I could have made more money in WWE if I signed there and done a good job, especially after 205 Live happened. It just wasn’t for me and never took my interest.”
Ospreay ultimately got exactly the career he was looking for without taking the traditional WWE route. The Cruiserweight Classic could have completely changed that path in 2016, but between a paycheck he didn’t like and a wrestling style he preferred elsewhere, there wasn’t much pulling him toward Stamford.
What do you make of Will Ospreay turning down WWE and choosing NJPW instead? Let us know in the comments.
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