Will Ospreay has seen enough WWE clips to know one thing—some of those strikes aren’t coming anywhere close. The AEW star tore into wrestlers swinging at air on television, saying he would rather get hit for real than watch someone make the entire fight look fake.
The comments came during Ospreay’s conversation with Ariel Helwani, where the discussion initially centered on WWE’s attempts to sign him before he joined AEW. WWE gave Ospreay what he described as a “really lovely offer” in 2024, but the deal required him to relocate to the United States. Ospreay had no interest in moving his family out of England, though Helwani asked whether he might have signed if that condition had been removed.
That’s when Ospreay made it clear that moving wasn’t the only dealbreaker. He respects WWE and isn’t permanently closing the door, but he doesn’t like how the company films its product or presents its wrestling.
“I do respect it. I really do. It’s just I don’t like the way it’s filmed. I don’t like the wrestling behind it. I think it’s very minimalistic.”
“I’ll never say never because that’s what we kind of do in the industry now. We just want to make sure that we keep all of our options open, for sure.”
Ospreay then contrasted WWE’s approach with the freedom he has in AEW. Instead of receiving a script, he gets basic talking points and is allowed to handle the rest himself.
“Right now, with the format and how much fun I’m having in AEW and just how much freedom I have to be me, I don’t have anyone putting a script in my hand. I have bullet points and I go out there and I just waffle.”
Helwani asked Ospreay to explain what he meant by calling WWE’s wrestling “minimalistic.” Ospreay said WWE can build an entire match around one spear and get a massive reaction from it. He respects the hell out of that approach, but it isn’t how he wants to wrestle.
“I just think the comparison in our matches and our main event matches is very, very different. One spear for them will be super satisfying, and I honestly respect it. Man, I wish I could get a spear like that. I wish I could, but it’s just not in me.”
“I prefer what we do. I prefer taking people on rides and showing people different ways that I can get into a Styles Clash, and the full contact of it.”
Then Ospreay went straight for the throat. He referenced a recent WWE clip where a female wrestler missed her opponent by what he described as a “country mile.” Ospreay didn’t identify either wrestler or specify which match he was watching, but he stressed that the problem isn’t limited to WWE’s women.
“I’ve been seeing WWE recently, and I saw this one clip and the girl missed her by flipping miles. It was like a country mile. But it’s not just the girls; it’s the guys as well.”
Ospreay even questioned whether WWE talent may be encouraged to pull back because the company is already making serious money and nobody needs to destroy their body just to get through a match.
“I do wonder if they’re being kind of told, ‘We’re already making money. You don’t need to kill one another.’”
However, Ospreay doesn’t want safe-looking offense that misses by several feet. He said AEW’s matches have more physical contact, and he would rather eat a legitimate strike than have an opponent throw something that looks completely phony on television.
“I’m not saying everyone kills each other in AEW at all, but there’s more contact, and I like that. I like to feel alive when I do my pro wrestling.”
“I don’t want people to whiff a strike on me. I’d much rather people hit me than it look bad on TV. I know that’s weird. It might be an alien thought.”
Ospreay didn’t name the wrestler in the clip, so this wasn’t a direct attack on one specific WWE star. His larger point was still brutal: if the audience can see someone punching empty space, the illusion is dead—and Ospreay would rather take the shot than look ridiculous on television.
Is Will Ospreay right about WWE wrestlers visibly missing strikes, or is he taking the physical side of wrestling too far? Let us know what you think and leave your feedback in the comments.
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